| Historical notes: | Aboriginal people and colonisation.
Aboriginal occupation of the Blue Mountains area dates back at least 12,000 years and appears to have intensified some 3000-4000 years ago. In pre-colonial times the area now known as Bathurst was inhabited by Aboriginal people of the Wiradjuri linguistic group. The clan associated with Bathurst occupied on a seasonal basis most of the Macquarie River area. They moved regularly in small groups but prefered the open land and used the waterways for a variety of food. There are numerous river flats where debris from recurrent camps accumulated over a long period. European settlement in this region after the first documented white expedition west of the Blue Mountains in 1813 was tentative because of apprehensions about resistance from Aboriginal people. There was some contact, witnessed by sporadic hostility and by the quantity of surviving artefacts manufactured by the Aborigines from European glass. By 1840 there was widespread dislocation of Aboriginal culture, aggravated after 1850 by the goldrush to the region (HO and DUAP, 1996, 88).
Prior to European settlement in Australia, the Wiradjuri Aboriginal group lived in the upper Macquarie Valley. Bathurst was proclaimed a town by Lachlan Macquarie on 7 May 1815, named after Lord Bathurst, Principal Secretary of State for the Colonies (Barker 1992:25). Bathurst is Australia's oldest inland township. It was proclaimed a town in 1815 with the discovery of gold.
Bathurst:
Governor Macquarie chose the site of the future town of Bathurst on 7 May 1815 during his tour over the Blue Mountains, on the road already completed by convict labour supervised by William Cox. Macquarie marked out the boundaries near the depot established by surveyor George Evans and reserved a site for a government house and domain. Reluctant to open the rich Bathurst Plains to a large settlement, Macquarie authorised few grants there initially, one of the first being 1000 acres to William Lawson, one of the three European explorers who crossed the mountains in 1813. The road-maker William Cox was another early grantee but later had to move his establishment to Kelso on the non-government side of the Macquarie River (GAO, 2005, 8).
A modest release of land in February 1818 occurred when ten men were chosen to take up 50 acre farms and 2 acre town allotments across the river from the government buildings. When corruption by government supervisor Richard Lewis and acting Commandant William Cox caused their dismissal, they were replaced by Lieutenant William Lawson who became Commandant of the settlement in 1818 (ibid, 8).
Macquarie continued to restrict Bathurst settlement and reserved all land on the south side of the Macquarie River for government buildings and stock, a situation that prevailed until 1826. In December 1819 Bathurst had a population of only 120 people in 30 houses, two thirds being in the township of Kelso on the eastern side of the river and the remainder scattered on rural landholdings nearby. The official report in 1820 numbered Bathurst settlers at 114, including only 14 women and 15 children. The government buildings comprised a brick house for the commandant, brick barracks for the military detachment and houses for the stock keeper, and log houses for the 50 convicts who worked the government farm. Never successful, the government farm was closed by Governor Darling in 1828 (ibid, 8).
Governor Darling, arriving in Sydney in 1825, promptly commenced a review of colonial administration and subsequently introduced vigorous reforms. On advice from Viscount Goderich, Darling divided colonial expenditure into two parts: one to cover civil administration, funded by New South Wales; the other for the convict system, funded by Britain (ibid, 10).
By this time, J.McBrien and Robert Hoddle had surveyed the existing grants in the vicinity. Surveyor James Bym Richards began work on the south side of the river in 1826. But the town was apparently designed by Thomas Mitchell in 1830 and did not open until late 1833 after Richards had completed the layout of the streets with their two-road allotments. The first sales were held in 1831 before the survey was complete (ibid, 10).
In 1832 the new Governor, Major General Sir Richard Bourke, visited Bathurst in October. He instructed the Surveyor General Major Thomas L. Mitchell to make arrangements for 'opening the town of Bathurst without delay' and he in turn instructed the Assistant Surveyor at Bathurst J.B. Richards to lay out the blocks and streets. This was done in September 1833. It is believed that Major Mitchell named the streets, with George Street being named after King George III.
Bridging the Macquarie River:
Despite the growing importance of Bathurst as the principal urban centre over the Blue Mountains, the Macquarie River, which flows past the town on the Sydney side, was not bridged until 1856.
After years of local agitation, a long timber bridge with five laminated timber arches was started in 1855 and was opened on 1 January 1856 by the Governor, Sir William Denison. A bullock was roasted on a spit and 3000 people celebrated the new bridge, named after the Governor.
This was the last 'official' bridge designed by the Colonial Architect's Department under its brief direction by architect and engineer, William Weaver (1828-68). It was supervised by his Clerk of Works, WIlliam Downey, during 1855 (Maguire, 1984, 46).
Eleven days later another bridge over the Macquarie River a kilometre downstream was opened by a local entrepreneur, George Ranken (frequently quoted as Rankin): this bridge was known as the Eglinton Bridge or Rankin's Bridge.
The Denison Bridge was washed away by the great flood of 1867 and its debris also destroyed Rankin's Bridge, so after eleven years of having two bridges, Bathurst again found itslelf with only a ford or a ferry to cross the Macquarie. A narrow temporary wooden bridge was put across near the remains of the Denison Bridge later in 1867, but this was closed for safety reasons in June 1868. The government recognised that a permanent replacement was urgently needed. A new site was chosen 100 metres downstream from the first Denison Bridge and a realignment was made to the road approaches.
The new Denison Bridge was designed by Gustavus Alphonse Morrell, Assistant Engineer to the Department of Roads and foundation member of the Engineering Association of NSW. The bridge contract drawings bear Morrell's signature and that of William Christopher Bennett, Commissioner for Roads.
The bridge was constructed in 1869 to 1870 by the prominent engineering firm, P. N. Russell & Co at a cost of 18,818 pounds through the NSW Public Works Department. Most of the angle irons and bars were specially rolled for the job at P. N. Russell & Co's Pyrmont Rolling Mills and at Bathurst's two iron foundries of that time, including the nearby Denison Foundry. Only heavy iron plates and bars were imported.
Like the first bridge, the new one was opened by the Governor of the time, who was now the Earl of Belmore. Denison had left the colony in 1861 for Madras and then to retirement in England, where he died in 1871. But the new bridge, opened in June 1870, was the replacement of the Denison Bridge of 1856 and the name of Denison was retained.
Although incorporated in the original design, footways were never built as part of the bridge. A steel footbridge was erected in 1950, on the upstream side, by the Department of Main Roads.
In use for over 120 years as a road bridge, its service life was interrupted only for a 9-day repair period in the 1960s. It was superseded by a prestressed concrete bridge upstream and closed to vehicular traffic in the early 1990s and adapted for use as a footbridge.
HISTORICAL NOTES ON KEY INDIVIDUALS
The supervisor of the original bridge design was engineer, William Christopher Bennett. Bennett came from Ireland where he worked on railway and drainage works, and in South America on canal works. Arriving in Sydney in 1855 he met Sir Thomas Mitchell, Colonial Surveyor, and joined the Department. He worked on sewerage and railway works before being appointed Assistant Engineer of Main Roads.
On 1 January 1859 Bennett became Engineer to the Department of Roads which he helped to form and eventually was appointed Commissioner for Roads on 1st November 1862. In his term of office, roads were extended nearly 6,000 miles (9,600km) 2,000 miles (3,200 km) surfaced, with a total length of bridges of 40 miles (64 km). Bennett's signature appears on the Denison bridge contract drawings as commissioner, dated 20th August, 1868. A steel footbridge was erected in 1950 on the upstream side by the Department of Main Roads.
The bridge designer, Gustavus Alphonse Morrell, arrived in Australia in 1863 and initially worked on defence installations. He was appointed Assistant Engineer on 13 June 1867. After establishing his own business he presided over a Royal Commission into the condition of railway bridges in the colony. He was also a foundation member of the Engineering Association of New South Wales formed on 24 September 1870. Morrell, as Assistant Engineer, also signed the Denison bridge drawings.
The Russell brothers and P. N. Russell and Co: The Russell brothers arrived with their father in 1838 and established a foundry and engineering works on the banks of the tank stream. In 1842 Peter started his own business, the Sydney Foundry and Engineering Works. In 1855 P. N. Russell & Co was formed comprising Peter Russell who served in London as the overseas representative, and John and George Russell and J. W. Dunlop (the works foreman) . The firm flourished, establishing workshops on a large waterfront area at Darling Harbour and by the 1870s employing 850 men. During this period, the firm completed the contracts for the Denison Bridge in 1870 and the Hume Bridge at Yass in 1871. However, industrial trouble beginning in 1873 saw the closure of the company in 1874.
In 1896 P. N. Russell endowed the School of Engineering at Sydney University with $100,000, followed by a second bequest of $100,000 in 1904. John Russell was also a foundation member of the Engineering Association of New South Wales. |
