Alexandra Railway Bridge

About

The Alexandra Railway Bridge is a heritage-listed railway bridge across the Fitzroy River that carries the North Coast railway line, located adjacent to North Street, Rockhampton, in Central Queensland, Australia. It was designed by Henry Charles Stanley and built from 1898 to 1899 by George Charles Willcocks. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 21 October 1992.

The Alexandra Railway Bridge, constructed in 1898–1899, crosses the Fitzroy River and is an integral part of the original design of the Rockhampton Junction railway line, and is an important element in the development of the railway network in Queensland. The Archer brothers had made a private expedition to the Rockhampton district in 1853, and were the first Europeans to record and chart the Fitzroy River. The Archers were also the first European pastoralists to arrive in the area. Their establishment of Gracemere pastoral station lead to further pastoral expansion into the area. After the short lived Canoona gold rush of 1858, Rockhampton was proclaimed as a town and declared a "port of entry" in 1858. Following the gold rush the town of Rockhampton developed as an entry and export town for Central Queensland. Rockhampton continued to eclipse its nearest rival Gladstone for nearly a century as the principal port for central Queensland. In 1863 the Parliament of Queensland passed the controversial Railway Bill, which committed Queensland to the use of a narrow gauge for the development of its main line in Queensland. Other colonies in Australia at this time had adopted broader gauges for use on their rail networks. The reasoning behind this decision was that a narrow gauge would have lower construction costs. The first section of the Queensland railway network was opened between Ipswich and Bigges Camp (now Grandchester) on 31 July 1865, and later extended to link the towns of Warwick, Dalby and Toowoomba with Ipswich. At the time that the Railway Act had been passed, the 5000 citizens of Rockhampton objected to having no provision made for the construction of a railway to their hinterland, where copper was being exploited in the Peak Downs area. A railway was thought necessary to ensure development of the interior.

The first length of line was opened to Westwood some 48 kilometres (30 mi) from Rockhampton in 1867. The line was extended beyond the coastal ranges in 1872, reaching Emerald in 1879. The Central Western railway line was progressively extended further west reaching Longreach in 1892, and remained an isolated railway system, with no connection to the southern division of Queensland railways until 1903. In 1882 after Brisbane had acquired a railway to the seaside at Sandgate, Rockhampton clamoured for a similar connection to its resort at Emu Park. Construction of the Emu Park line was approved in 1885 and the line opened in 1888. The 1880s was a period of economic and civic expansion in Rockhampton as a result of the discovery and exploitation of the gold and ore body at Mount Morgan in the Dee Range forty kilometres from Rockhampton. A result of the isolation of Rockhampton from Brisbane, and the prosperity of the Mount Morgan mine, was the growth of the separatist movement which demanded separation of Northern Queensland from Brisbane. The colonial government of the period used railway construction, and the extension of the system, to counter the separation movement. The line, similar to Bundaberg, featured a railway system divided by a major river. In Rockhampton, this consisted of the Central Western line running from a terminus in Stanley Street to Gracemere and westwards, which had no physical connection to the line from North Rockhampton to Emu Park. Two years after the opening of the Emu Park line, the Railway Department began investigating the possibility of linking Rockhampton's two separate railways. The bridging of the Fitzroy River and the cost of land resumptions to join the two terminus stations were to be major difficulties in connecting the two lines. Trial surveys in 1890 investigated two routes, but the Australian banking crisis of 1893 forestalled further work. The impetus for bridging the Fitzroy River came from the decision of the Queensland Government to construct a deepwater port at Broadmount at the mouth of the Fitzroy River in 1894, and to link the Central Western Railway with North Rockhampton via a bridge across the Fitzroy and a line running via Denison Street. The original plan called for a single line down Denison Street and for a single track bridge, however the Rockhampton City Council protested against this decision. Following a visit to Rockhampton by chief engineer Henry Charles Stanley, the management of the Lakes Creek Meatworks at North Rockhampton convinced the Railway Department to construct a double line to North Rockhampton, as it was felt that developments in livestock and goods traffic would justify the initial outlay. In 1895 construction was approved for what was to be known as the Rockhampton Junction Railway. The new bridge and connecting line were the first examples of double lines outside of the Brisbane-Ipswich metropolitan area. The Rockhampton City Council gave half of Leichhardt Park (Archer Park) and Denison Street which allowed for the construction of a central railway station. The Council approved this work in October 1896. The tender for construction of the Rockhampton Junction Railway was awarded to George Charles Willcocks in 1897. The contract involved the construction of the branch to Broadmount, the Denison Street line, and the Alexandra Railway Bridge. Willcocks at this period was one of Queensland's most prolific railway contractors, having been involved in the construction of various sections of the North Coast Line, as well as railway lines in the Brisbane area. The bridge contract was awarded to Willcocks at a cost of £43,471, and construction of the double line from Stanley Street to North Rockhampton was £65,137. Construction of the bridge was delayed until 1898 due to flooding on the Fitzroy River. The bridge was designed by chief engineer Henry Charles Stanley and is similar to, but smaller than, the Albert Bridge, which he designed to replace the Brisbane River crossing which was washed away during the 1893 flood. Five metal truss spans were used, two at 75 metres (246 ft) in length and two at 30.5 metres (100 ft). No falsework was used during construction because of the risk of floods. The first of the main spans was floated into position on 14 June 1899. The method used to place the main spans was also similar to that used for the Albert Bridge, where a hulk was employed to float the span into position. At the time of its construction, the maximum span of the bridge at 75 metres (246 ft) was the fourth largest achieved in Australia, after the first Hawkesbury Bridge in New South Wales (1889, 125 metres (410 ft)), Albert Bridge (1895, 103.7 metres (340 ft)) and the Burdekin River's Macrossan Bridge, Qld (76.2 metres (250 ft)).

Adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA). Photography via Wikimedia Commons.