Image: Oakey Creek Bridges c.1943
Source: Dpt. of Defence
Railway bridge (foreground) and the old wooden road bridge behind
Image: Interim bridge c.1946
Source: Beryl Vohland
For those of you that have been through town (Oakey) recently you’ll have noticed a lot of work happening at the old railway bridge on Oakey Creek. So I thought I’d take a look around the collection and see what I had from when the Bridge Street Bridge was built. The official opening of the new concrete bridge was 31 January 1948 by Minister of Works and Housing Mr Power. The bridge is 224 ft. long (68m), two-lane with a 6ft. (2m) footpath. It was built for Main Roads by J.R. Hornibrook with the total cost coming to £13,546.
It was said that the final design of the bridge was influenced by George Connelly. The department of Main Roads agreed to remove a span from the plan and instead build up the creek bank so that the bridge would not interfere with the access to Connelly Motors (now Wolski Glass). The shed for Connelly Motors also had to wait for the new bridge to be finished. After the war, the sheds at the aerodrome were auctioned off and George bought one. Unfortunately it was impossible to get the 65 ft. (20m) tresses up and down the creek banks, and so they had to wait for the bridge to be completed.
Image: Bridge Opening 1948
Source: Dpt. of Defence
Image: Bridge Opening 1948
Source: Dpt. of Defence
Here’s some of the images from the collection that were gathered before, during and after the bridge was built.
