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Jubilee Bridge

Location Omeo Highway,, OMEO VIC 3898 - Property No B6842 File Number B6842 Level State

[1/7] B6842 Jubilee Bridge [2/7] B6842 Jubilee Bridge side [3/7] B6842 Jubilee Bridge Omeo [4/7] B6842 Jubilee Bridge [5/7] B6842 Jubilee Bridge deck [6/7] B6842 Jubilee Bridge [7/7] B6842 Jubilee Bridge

Statement of Significance

What is significant? Jubilee Bridge, built in 1917-1918 north of Omeo, is a four-span squared-timber-beam road bridge, with timber piers and abutments, and longitudinal timber deck. It is no longer in use.
How is it significant? Jubilee Bridge is significant for historic and technical reasons at the State level.
Why is it significant? Jubilee Bridge is of historic significance as the only surviving timber bridge known to have been built during World War 1. It is on the Omeo Highwav which links East Gippsland with the Upper Murray Valley, and is Victoria's first officially-declared state highway (1925). Until Jubilee Bridge was bypassed in 2001 it was the oldest timber bridge in use on a Victorian state highway.
Jubilee Bridge is of technical significance because the timber frame has technical characteristics unknown in any other Victorian bridge The hand-hewn old stringers and corbels of rugged Gippsland Grey Box still bearing broad-axe marks are in themselves extremely rare today but the manner in which they are locked together by squared-timber 'keys' or 'dowels' is unique in this State.
Jubilee Bridge has unusually long (9.5 metre) spans for a timber-beam road bridge.
Classified: 30/10/1998