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Former Cavendish Rail Bridge

Location Henty Highway (adjacent),, CAVENDISH VIC 3314 - Property No B6912 File Number B6912 Level State

[1/5] B6912 Rail Bridge [2/5] B6912 Rail Bridge Girders [3/5] B6912 Rail Bridge [4/5] B6912 Rail Bridge Deck [5/5] B6912 Rail Bridge

Statement of Significance

What is significant? The Cavendish Railway Bridge, built in 1920 for the final stage of the Hamilton-East Natimuk Railway, is a single-track timber and wrought-iron rail-over-river bridge. The bridge has seven timber-beam approach spans of twenty feet (6.1 metres), and three principal spans each of 42 feet (12. 8 metres) with wrought-iron plate girders, giving a total transverse-timber deck length of 246 feet (seventy-five metres).
The line closed in 1979.
How is it significant? The Cavendish Railway Bridge is technically, historically and aesthetically significant to the State of Victoria.
Why is it significant? The Cavendish Railway Bridge is technically significant. It has an unusual combination of span lengths and materials; the timber piers are unusually varied and range from simple two-pile piers to complex eight-pile double-pile piers at the main river channel. These latter piers were used because of the loading requirements of the wrought-iron girder principal spans.
The iron girders are historic technological artifacts that had originally been used for a bridge on the North East Railway in the early 1870's, but were recycled to Cavendish.
It is unusual to find a twentieth-century Victorian railway bridge that uses big conventional timber-beam approach spans and timber-pile piers in conjunction with lengthy wrought-iron plate-girder principal spans, and Cavendish Railway Bridge is the only substantial example in Western Victoria.
The Cavendish Railway Bridge is historically significant as one of very few surviving substantial remnants of the north-south link-line built in the early twentieth century. The construction of this bridge was the engineering feat that created what became known as the Hamilton-East Natimuk Railway, linking a series of earlier local north-south lines. This line was built to carry wheat from the western Wimmera and Mallee south to the deep sea port at Portland, and was the outcome of intense lobbying from Portland interests.
The Cavendish Railway Bridge is aesthetically significant with its tall, complex timber piers presenting a handsome profile against a backdrop of broad river flats dotted with river red gums. Situated adjacent to the Henty Highway, this impressive bridge is the most accessible and readily visible of the very few surviving substantial bridges on the historic Hamilton-East Natimuk Railway.
Classified: 06/07/1998