Wannon River Rail Bridge

The Wannon River Bridge, situated a few kilometres east of Casterton and built in 1884 as an important component of the Branxholme-Casterton Railway, is historically and aesthetically significant at State level. It remains by far the most impressive surviving artefact from the historic Branxholme-Casterton Railway, once part of the regular overland link between Melbourne and Adelaide.

This railway was originally intended to be the first section of a larger Portland-oriented rail network that would penetrate north into the Wimmera and Mallee wheat lands, and westwards into South Australia. For some years prior to the construction of the inter-colonial Melbourne-Adelaide rail link via Serviceton, the Branxholme-Casterton-line station at Casterton was the Victorian Railways terminus for passengers travelling overland between Melbourne and Adelaide.

It is a single-track timber-trestle and all-timber railway bridge, consisting of 64 timber-beam spans each of 4.57 metres (15 feet). Its total length is 292.61 metres, and its maximum height is an impressive 9.22 metres. The timber piers include very rare tall vertical-four-pile structures at the main river channel, and the bridge deck sweeps in a grand curve.

The Wannon River Bridge near the end of the Bransholme-Casterton Railway is the longest surviving example of a Victorian Railways 15 feet (4.57 metre) timber-beam bridge still retaining its all-timber integrity, possessing a deck almost 293 metres long. It is the longest nineteenth-century Victorian railways timber bridge still in existence. Dating from 1884, it also rates highly among the oldest surviving Victorian Railways timber bridges, and has unusual early structural features, particularly the very rare tall vertical-four-pile piers on the main river-channel section.

The Wannon River Bridge is situated amidst some of the most picturesque grazing land in the Western District, where the broad flood plains of the Wannon and Glenelg Rivers merge to form one gigantic flood plain. The lengthy old bridge curving across the flood plain just outside Casterton is readily accessible to the public, and contributes much to the local scenery as well as providing a convenient viewing platform from which to observe the Wannon River valley and the sprawling tree-dotted grasslands of the far Western District of Victoria.

Group

Transport - Rail

Category

Railway Bridge/ Viaduct