Rockhamptons Freecamp Woolwash Lagoon

[Bundyrumandcoke]

And this is the reason for the high level bridge. This is the big roundabout just to the south of Rockhampton during the 1990/1991 flood.

[Bundyrumandcoke]

And again, the aforementioned photo of the Capricorn Spire in its original location.

[dieseltojo]

Good info Bundyrumandcoke,

My rello’s in law date back to a bloke called “Edwin Rubin Carpenter.” He was a US citizen and built the first bridge across the southern entry to Rockhampton in 1861 completed in 1863. Not much info on it now but it was called “The Long Bridge” locally.

We had to ferret some info from the history section of the library in Rocky and the Central Qld university. But they did not have a pic of it. They have pics of the first rail bridge but the camera must have been busted for The Long Bridge project.


He was given 500 quid up front to buy all the saw mill equipment from Sydney and set up a saw mill near the “Woolwash” It was about 2000 feet long and 24 foot wide built on the Chock and Log principal.

They used all local timber.

Long gone now, but believed to have been near where the rail line bridge comes in at present.













long

[Bundyrumandcoke]

Fairybower.jpg

Google Earth is such a fun thing to use. Have a look at the above image. It shows Yeppen flood plain, immediately to the south of Rocky. The big roundabout is top right, and Gracemere is bottom left. The Woolwash lagoon is out of picture to the right. The Long Bridge you refer to will be the line running diagonally from top right to bottom left. Nothing exists of this now, but I do remember timber pylons disappearing into the distance from the area of the roundabout when I first lived in Rocky in the early 80s. This would have been the original alignment for the Central Western line out to Longreach. You can see the existing North Coast line alignment off to the right, and the new Central western line alignment comes in at the bottom left.

[Bundyrumandcoke]

Google earth shows up so much. Its actually quite difficult to erase completely any signs of previous railway, and road, alignments. The old Mt Morgan track alignment is easily seen, even though its 27 years since it was pulled up. PLus its easy to follow further south. The old alignment along the Woolwash Rd is also easily visible for the most part.

[Frank & Brenda]

Thanks Paul noted for our trip next year