Bridge 0351, Great Southern Highway

Values

• The place is an demonstration of the widespread use of timber as a structural material in the early twentieth century.
• The place is associated with the growth of regional infrastructure in the early twentieth century.

Physical Description

Bridge 0351, Great Southern Highway is a double lane timber, steel and concrete road bridge spanning a minor waterway southeast of Katanning. The bridge is approximately 7.2 m long, 9.7 m wide and sits approximately 1 m above the gully bed.
The trestle bridge consists of a single span constructed along a northwest-southeast axis. The bridge abutments consist of concrete and masonry rubble wing walls on top of a solid concrete base.
The original bridge deck is not visible but is assumed to be timber planks, set onto a series of round timber log stringers set between the abutments. The stringers rest on a dressed timber halfcap. The outer edges of the span are protected by galvanised steel plates.
The surface of the bridge consists of a bituminised road kerbed with concrete, with galvanised steel safety barriers affixed to galvanised steel safety rails. These in turn are bolted to the steel edge plates as well as the timber stringers below. No pedestrian access path is provided.

History

The economic policies of the Western Australian government during the 1920s can be described as broadly expansionist, in particular agricultural and pastoral expansion. However, these policies suffered severe contraction due to droughts and the effects of the Great Depression. At the end of the 1920s and into the early 1930s, the government responded in a number of ways, including stimulating the building market and investing in the expansion of industrial development such as the mining industry or capital works projects such as dams, sewerage, clearing and roads. The development of roads became particularly important as families migrated to Perth seeking work, resulting in rapid urbanisation.
The Main Roads Board was established in 1926, taking over some of the responsibilities of the Public Works Department. The board was re-established as the Main Roads Department in 1930. Main Roads became an active part of the state’s response to the economic crisis, providing short-term work for unemployed on a variety of infrastructure projects, even while struggling to cut costs and staff within their own structure. These works included road works and bridgeworks, with a focus on the southwest of the state.
Timber trestle bridges were a common sight since the early days of the Swan River Colony as timber was easily obtainable and fire-resistant. As such the use of concrete for abutments and as a foundation structure was still relatively unknown in the inter-war period.

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