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\u201cThis new bridge will last for at least the next 100 years and will improve road safety for motorists while also enabling heavy vehicles… to take the fastest route to their destination.\u201d<\/p>\n
Golden Plains Shire mayor Cr Gavin Gamble said having a seamless connection between Ballarat and the Shire\u2019s communities is key.<\/p>\n
\u201cMany Golden Plains residents regularly travel from our northern towns into Ballarat and the new Franklin Bridge makes that journey safer for our residents,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor our local fire brigades, with heavier, bigger trucks it allows for faster more direct access in an emergency; and for our local school children, the new bridge provides a shorter, safer ride home.\u201d<\/p>\n
Victoria Senator, Sarah Henderson, celebrated what she said was an important funding commitment.<\/p>\n
\u201cTogether, we\u2019ve worked with the community through the Bridges Renewal Program to make sure you have that infrastructure that you deserve,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Scotchmans Lead was a booming precinct in 1858, with its first wooden bridge over the Yarrowee connecting goldmining communities, however it was swept away by a flood in 1860.<\/p>\n
Two years later its flimsy replacement contributed to a incident when a man and horse with a delivery cart toppled into the river and drowned.<\/p>\n
Historian Dr Anne Beggs-Sunter said the inquest was held metres up the road at the pub on the hill.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Lady Franklin Hotel was just here, opposite the very successful Franklin Gold Mine,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cLady Franklin was the wife of the Governor of Van Diemen\u2019s Land, Sir John Franklin. He was a great polar explorer who went off to find the Northwest Passage in the Arctic and got lost.<\/p>\n
\u201cLady Franklin spent about 12 years trying to find out what had happened to her husband. She was a famous lady in the 1850s for her devotion to her husband… so that\u2019s why we got the Lady Franklin Hotel, the Franklin Mine, and Franklin Bridge.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s really important that we hold onto that name. It is a fascinating area.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
EIGHTEEN months after its completion, the two-lane Franklin Bridge between Napoleons and Buninyong got its pandemic-delayed official opening last week. The upgraded 40-metre structure runs over the Yarrowee River on Scotchmans Lead Road is on the Golden Plains Shire and City of Ballarat boundary and stands in place of what was a one-lane bridge dating […]<\/p>\n