The Redesdale Bridge: shining a light on a hidden historical beauty

ONE of Victoria’s oldest and most ornate iron truss bridges can be found nestled in a valley in central Victoria.The Redsdale Bridge, roughly halfway between Heathcote and Kyneton, replaced a dangerous open ford crossing in the late 1860s.

Mail coaches had previously been delayed when the Campaspe River rose, and both the McIvor and Metcalf Shires were undoubtably relieved to finally have a sturdy bridge straddling their mutual boundary.

A colonial government grant of £3,000 pounds provided the initial funds for the project, but by its completion expenditure had blown out to more than £6,274.

Quibbling over rising costs became a regular feature of McIvor Shire meeting reports in the McIvor Times.

But they could have been much higher.

Both councils benefited from being able to purchase about 200 tons of wrought-iron bridge components for the bargain price of £1000.

They were part of a larger consignment of materials imported from England in 1859, and were intended for a bridge at across the Yarra River at Hawthorn.

It was carried as deck cargo on the Herald of the Morning, but the ship caught fire in Hobsons Bay before it was unloaded and it was scuttled to extinguish the blaze.

The iron work was later salvaged and repaired, and, after a parliamentary row involving allegations of bribery, it was then sold for scrap metal value.

It was originally priced at about £6000.

On 21 February 1868, the McIvor Times editor noted that the new bridge had been “pronounced by competent judges to be a good and cheap structure.”

“Notwithstanding the fact that it took upwards of three times the contract time to erect it, and that it cost £873 more than the estimated cost, the public have nothing to regret beyond the fact that the traffic on the cross-country road, on which it is erected, is rather too limited to make it apparent that the great expenditure on that place was a judicious application of the limited resources of either council,” he wrote.

The bridge was officially opened in early 1868 and on 25 January the Kyneton Guardian carried a lengthy account of the proceedings. “The day proved very fine, although sultry, and the attendance of visitors was numerous, especially from Heathcote, from whence came a galaxy of charming ladies,” it reported.

McIvor Shire president Robinson Cocks introduced Mrs Morris, wife of Heathcote councillor, hotelier and mail coach operator John Buchanan Morris, to the assembled crowd.

“Who in a very lady-like and appropriate manner broke a bottle of champagne over the iron ribs of the bridge, declaring it to be duly opened, and to be known in future by the name of “The Redesdale Bridge,” the paper wrote.

This name was not, however, officially gazetted until 2015.

While it has undergone repairs in recent years, and the arch trusses were raised in 1999, it is substantially the same structure that was built in the 1860s.

It was added to the Victorian Heritage Register in 1982 and is considered to be of importance for scientific, historical and aesthetic reasons.

“The bridge, imported from England, is one of the oldest surviving metal truss bridges in the State and is an important illustration of early iron bridge construction techniques,” the statement of significance said.

“The bridge is of historical significance as a river crossing on the important route that linked the goldfields centres of Kyneton and Heathcote, for its connection with the Hawthorn Bridge and associated ship fire and parliamentary scandal.

“The bridge is of aesthetic significance as one of the most visually distinctive bridges in Victoria, located above a broad and deep river valley.”