House Stuck on Bridge!

More recent Water Street bridge over the Cooks River, 8 September 2023. Courtesy Strathfield Local Studies

 

Residents of Enfield and Strathfield South had an interesting experience one evening in September 1928 when crossing the bridge over the Cooks River at Water Street required them to walk through a house!

A weatherboard house was being transported in two halves between Belmore and Auburn by a team of 12 horses. Approaching the bridge just before 6pm – with half the house – the teamster realised that the width of his load left a mere few inches to spare on the bridge. Undeterred he pressed on, with careful negotiation, until the centre of the bridge was reached, where the house became firmly wedged. It took several hours for the house to be freed and the bridge successfully crossed by house, teamster and patient horses.

‘Meantime the bridge was blocked to traffic. Pedestrians and bus passengers calmly opened the front door of the moving house, and regained the bridge from the back door.’[1]

Such excitement! But sadly no photos to record the incident.

This wooden bridge collapsed seven years later on 3 December 1935 just a few minutes after a pedestrian had crossed it. At the time, the stretch of concrete channel beneath the bridge was under construction and two days of solid rain on the excavations had weakened the supports. At this point the Cooks River and Coxs Creek diverge. Fortunately the authorities realised the danger that day and the Hurstville-Enfield bus was diverted, although the bridge was apparently sagging by the time the last car crossed it.

‘Pedestrians, however, used the footway up till five minutes before the first span, with a rending of old timbers, crashed to the creek-bed.’[2]

Half an hour later the second span caved in with the added drama of the gas and water mains running across the bridge bursting. Water gushed into the channel and the smell of gas invaded nearby homes for hours afterwards. A gap of about 18 metres separated the two sections of road with a muddy torrent below.
Within two days the Public Works Department had committed to building a concrete bridge to replace the wrecked bridge in time for Christmas. This, however, did not occur. At the Enfield Council meeting of 10 December the Mayor, Alderman S. Lloyd reported that the Minister for Works had inspected the bridge at Water Street.[3] It became necessary to alter the route of the motor omnibus operating at between Hurstville and Enfield until the new bridge was built.[4]

Cooks River (right) and Coxs Creek (left) from the Water Street bridge after rain, 8 September 2023. Courtesy Strathfield Local Studies

By February 1936 the aldermen of Enfield Council resolved ‘that it is considered that the plan of proposed bridge in Water Street as submitted by Public Works Department is satisfactory for the present requirements of the district.’[5]

The minutes of the meeting of 14 April note that the Minister had approved a bridge with a 30 ft roadway and two 6 ft footways.[6] No definite date for the opening of the new bridge has been confirmed but it seems to have been later in 1936.

The minutes of the meeting held on 16 March 1937 note that subsidence had occurred in the approaches to the new bridge after heavy rain. Repairs had been completed by June.[7]

 

By J.J. MacRitchie

Local Studies Advisor

 

References

[1] Sydney Morning Herald 15 September 1928 p.18 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article16494419

 

[2] Daily Telegraph 4 December 1935 p.1 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article46034087

 

[3] Enfield Council minutes 10 December 1935

 

[4] Enfield Council minutes 7 January 1936

 

[5] Enfield Council minutes 18 February 1936

 

[6] Enfield Council minutes 14 April 1936

 

[7] Enfield Council minutes 22 June 1937