8 June 2010

Destruction of Heritage Collector Creek Bridge - this week?

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[First filed: Jun 7, 2010 @ 8:45]

collector bridge

Dear Canberra Neighbours,

I just found this site, and thought I might let you know that the old wooden Collector Town Creek Bridge (that you cross directly before arriving at the Collector Pumpkin Festival) is being demolished by our local council this month – maybe even this week – bridge closed sign markers appeared late last week, and I anticipate that the Upper Lachlan Council will want the bridge gone as quickly and quietly as possible, to prevent any community action.

This is wanton destruction of an important historical bridge which was built in the 1880’s. The Collector Bridge is on the old Federal Highway to Canberra and is part of the route that was used by pioneers to Southern New South Wales from the 1830’s. In addition it is adjacent to the site where Governor Macquarie named Lake George in October 1820.

Upper Lachlan Shire Council wishes to destroy this bridge within the next month without having any heritage assessment made. They wish to replace it with a low level culvert 1.5 metres below the level of the current bridge and dig up and lower the old Highway for 100 metres on each side. We consider this to be an act of vandalism against the heritage of the town but also of the State of New South Wales.

If anyone on here had anything to do with the preservation of the Tharwa Bridge, and how you went about it, we’d love to hear from you! Please contact us at admin@collectorvoice.com !

Help us SAVE OUR BRIDGE!

Please sign the online petition to protest the destruction of the historic Collector Bridge here:

http://www.gopetition.com.au/online/36925.html

To keep up with the latest news on the Collector Bridge, visit here:

http://collectorvoice.com/causes/collector-bridge-news.html

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JustThinking2:51 pm 06 Feb 11

QUOTE”””is being demolished by our local council this month – maybe even this week – bridge closed sign markers appeared late last week, and I anticipate that the Upper Lachlan Council will want the bridge gone as quickly and quietly as possible, to prevent any community action.”””

ummm,,,this was in newspapers and all in June last year…Really not so ‘quickly and quietly as possible”
People are waiting till now when signs appear to do or say something about it?

wildturkeycanoe8:47 am 06 Feb 11

Agreed with Gazket, they didn’t have galvanized steel guard rails in the 1880s. It’s like saying a model-T Ford with alloy wheels and a V8 should be put in a museum as a representation of our motor vehicle history. They have tried to conserve many bridges in the Tumut district for similar reasons but the council just ran out of money. In the end they built a new Town bridge and closed the old one. Another bridge – Old Jones bridge – was demolished over 20 years ago as it was unsafe, whilst the Junction bridge has been a construction site since I can remember. What good is a bridge that either can’t be used or requires continual maintenance that costs a “struggling” council most of its budget. Talk about flogging a dead horse.

is that 1880’s guard rail attached to that bridge. it’s an old bridge. After all this rain your efforts would be better used petitioning for a new bridge and not a dangerous flooding culvert.

UrbanAdventure.org6:53 pm 08 Jun 10

It looks pretty average to me. Not really significant at all. I’ve seen lots of bridges like that. Nothing special.

It would make a rather nice Queens Birthday bonfire if you ask me.

Thoroughly Smashed2:49 pm 08 Jun 10

Mr Evil said :

It’s a bridge – get over it.

http://tinyurl.com/9mr3c7

James-T-Kirk said :

Why is everybody writing collector with an upper case C – as though it’s a place name?

Are you trolling both people in Collector with computers?

James-T-Kirk11:14 am 08 Jun 10

Why is everybody writing collector with an upper case C – as though it’s a place name?

georgesgenitals10:04 am 08 Jun 10

Maybe we need to build a… oh, hang on…

It’s a bridge – get over it.

Clown Killer8:32 pm 07 Jun 10

Council and the RTA will still be bound by the NSW Heritage Act. They’ll need an assessment that’s favorable to proceed with demolition. No assessment and they’re very exposed.

Woody Mann-Caruso7:38 pm 07 Jun 10

If anyone on here had anything to do with the preservation of the Tharwa Bridge

All you have to do, see, is build a time machine, go back in time to 1983, and have the Australian Heritage Commission enter your bridge on the Register of the National Estate.

Inappropriate1:56 pm 07 Jun 10

It’s a dilapidated old bridge that is irrepairable and needs replacing. I’ve driven over it a few times and I reckon any work to improve would largely be polishing a turd.

Captain RAAF12:02 pm 07 Jun 10

C’mon people, have a look at that thing! It’s hardly going to attract architectural enthusiasts from all over to come and admire it? As bridges go, its as boring as bat shit and should be demolished. Instead of fighting to save this nothing structure how about petitioning to have its replacement designed in a manner that will make it more appealing to discerning bridge admirers the world over.

This country is festooned with old railway trestle bridges that regularly get destroyed in the name of progress and you want to make a big deal of that eyesore?

Who cares it is a bridge. All infrastructure is built with a serviceable working lifespan, when it reaches the end of it’s serviceable life tear it down and replace it with concrete and reo bar. Pour all the money that would have been spent maintaining an old bridge into something useful like building $800,000 school canteens.

If they do knock it down, do you think I could get some of the wood? 🙂

Is it just another ‘old’ structure well past it’s use by date? Or is it a small but integral piece of the Collector communities history. Relegating a late 19th century wooden structure to the scrapheap I believe will be yet another unrecoverable loss to the town’s heritage. The town has been bypassed and it should retain any assets that maintain the character and warmth of the village.

When there are no more aesthetically sympathetic (and functional) structures left and we are only surrounded by steel bar reinforced, concrete aggregate architecture I think we may look back and see the economy of the refurbishment as short sighted.

James-T-Kirk10:29 am 07 Jun 10

Where is collector? I thought it got bypassed…

troll-sniffer9:36 am 07 Jun 10

Puh-lease… when bridges are built on highways and byways they have a known life-span and the older they get the more expensive they become to maintain, and eventually problems caused by deterioration of materials means that it is cheaper and safer to replace them with newer technologies and materials. When an engineer designs a bridge, and when the relevant authorities build it, it is known that one day it will become too old and need to be replaced with whatever newer technology is available at the time. That is the way of the world. No amount of bleating and whining about heritage values is going to change that.

So to be fair, what are your options? Well, one I can think of, if the preservation of the old bridge is vital to the well-being of the community, is to discuss the purchase of the old bridge materials and development of a plan to reconstruct the bridge elsewhere for non-traffic uses. If, as you bleat, it is such a vital item of heritage significance, the community will get behind you and fund the horrendously expensive process of relocation, planning, engineering and oversight of Collector’s newest pedestrian walkway.

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