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Wilks Creek Bridge

Location Marysville Tourist Road,, MARYSVILLE VIC 3779 - Property No B6439 File Number B6439 Level Demolished/Removed

[1/1] B6439 Wilks Creek Bridge

Statement of Significance

Originally built in 1871, but with a timber superstructure that was remodelled around 1900, the Wilks Creek Bridge is of State significance historicallly and scientifically. Its substantial bluestone substructure rates among the earliest of its kind surviving intact in Victoria.
The handcrafted bluestone masonry wingwalls and abutments, especially shaped to receive timber struts for an original strutted-stringer superstructure, are aesthetically appealing as well as of considerable scientific interest to the student of traditional Victorian colonial bridge construction.
Commemorating the name of the key Public Works Department engineer who supervised construction of the famous 'Yarra Track' during the 1860s and 1870s, the Wilks Creek bridge has special historical significance to Victorians as a very important surviving material relic of a monumentally-expensive nineteenth-century construction project designed to link Melboune with the bustling Woods Point Goldfields. The 'Yarra Track' was a favourite project of Clement Wilks, who had earlier played a vital role in Central Goldfields road and bridge construction for the Central Roads Board, from Castlemaine and Ballarat bases. The current semi-derelict timber superstructure from early this century was constructed by the famous bridge-engineering firm of Monash and Anderson.
This historic artefact of a distant gold era is situated at a picnic spot in prime tourist country just off the picturesque Black Spur route, between Narbethong and Marysville. The mountain ash stands of the Marysville area represent some of Australia's tallest forest growth, and are among the world's tallest trees. Several noble specimens of mountain ash enhance the immediate bridge environs, and the damp and shady creek valley is a home to native ferns and other native flora.
Classified: 10/11/1998