Hampden Bridge

About

Hampden Bridge is a heritage-listed single-span suspension bridge that carries Moss Vale Road (B73) across the Kangaroo River, in Kangaroo Valley, in the City of Shoalhaven local government area of New South Wales, Australia. The bridge was designed by Ernest de Burgh and built by Loveridge and Hudson. The property is owned by Transport for NSW. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 August 2019. Opened on 19 May 1898, the bridge is named in honour of Lord Hampden, the Governor of New South Wales from 1895 to 1899.

Hampden Bridge was designed by Ernest Macartney de Burgh, the colony's Assistant Engineer for Bridges, to replace the decaying timber truss bridge which originally spanned the Kangaroo River. The bridge was opened on 19 May 1898, just six days before floods washed the old bridge away. Construction was by Thomas Loveridge and Herbert Hudson and began in 1895. At the conclusion they formed a partnership, Loveridge and Hudson.

A public holiday was declared in Kangaroo Valley for the bridge opening. The bridge was opened by the Minister for Public Works, J. H. Young.

Kangaroo Valley region is within the Dharawal /Thurawal clan country, a language group extending generally from the "Cowpastures" ( Camden / Appin ) east along Georges River then to the south of Jervis Bay and west to Braidwood. The Wodi Wodi and Wandrawandian, Dharawal sub groups from the Illawarra -Shoalhaven area accessed the valley year round. Local Dharawal names are still used such as "Noggarah", a big gully and "Parronrah", suitable camping areas on the river side flats. Kangaroos and other wildlife abounded and the valley was considered a refuge or game reserve, sometimes used as a meeting place for the various family groups to replenish on their journey to the "Cowpastures" around the Camden/Appin area, where larger gatherings took place with neighbouring clans such as the Gundungurra from the Blue Mountains, to trade and conduct ceremony. Quite often disputes were also addressed through a formal process.

The arrival of the cedar getters and cattlemen in the 1800s changed the Aboriginal way of life and eventually only two family groups were recorded as living in the valley; at Trimbles Creek, north end of the valley and along the river on the southern side of the main village. By the early 1900s these remaining family groups were displaced from their lands and relocated with their remaining family groups clustered along the Illawarra/Shoalhaven coast, in places such as the (former) government reserves at Coomaditchee, Roseby Park and Wreck Bay.

Regardless of the physical exorcising of the Aboriginal people from the land, the rich Aboriginal landscape of this valley remains captured in the numerous traditional campsites marked by stone artefact scatters along the "Parronrah" and axe grinding grooves at Barrengarry; and also in the special places such as rock art sites in the sandstone overhangs along the "Noggarah" that feed into the main river, accompanied by the sharing of stories and song lines describing the important connections people have to country, and most importantly in the continuing culture of the Aboriginal people of the region today.

European settlement of the valley began in the late 1810s, with Richard Brooks sending cattle into the valley from the already settled districts of Berrima and Sutton Forest in 1817 and then taking up a grant in the valley in 1820. Others moved into the valley from Sutton Forest to occupy land around Brogers Creek. Cedar- getting also commenced in the first half of this century, with Kangaroo Valley known for its red cedar. Kangaroo Valley was surveyed by Hoddle in 1831. Several areas were selected for cattle stations in the 1830s, but the 1841 census showed only seven men inhabiting the valley.

Charles Throsby had passed through Kangaroo Valley in 1818 in search of a route from the coast to the settled districts along the Great South Road ( Hume Highway ). Throsby's route may have laid the line for the Cambewarra Road. The Cambewarra Road remained an important connection between the more closely settled districts to the north-west, with road access to Parramatta and Sydney, and the south coast. With access from Sydney to Wollongong still difficult into the early twentieth century, travelling to the south coast via the Cambewarra Road, remained a popular way (and still is today) to reach the south coast.

Henry Osborne, an Irish settler was a prominent landholder in the valley as well at other locations across the state and in 1837 held over 4000 acres. Charles McCaffrey, one of a group of settlers from Fermanagh, Ireland, brought dairy farming into the Kiama -Shoalhaven region, settling at Barrengarry in 1846. He soon began a dairy and butter production. Once Kangaroo Valley was opened to free settlement, the population grew from 200 in 1861, to 1,400 in 1881 as dairy farmers flocked to the valley. The region developed to become the Colony's major butter producer. However, travelling out of the region to the coast and Southern Highlands was still restricted by having to cross a ford over the Kangaroo River.

As the local farming activities reached a peak in the 1870s, it was decided to construct a two span timber truss bridge over the Kangaroo River of the "Old Public Works Department " (Old PWD) design. The call for tenders was advertised in the Government Gazette 21 August 1874, p. 2531. The awarding of the contract to build the bridge for A£3,000 to the Braidwood-based company, Kelly and Walsh was advertised in the Government Gazette 11 September 1876 p. 3608. According to Clark (1998) there were many unforeseen difficulties encountered during construction which resulted in the shifting of the site of the bridge to help with bridge construction. The bridge which was named the Kangaroo Valley Bridge was opened on 14 August 1879 by Thomas Garrett, MP. The new bridge significantly improved access for the residents of the Valley, supported the five butter factories, the main township which had now gained a school, Post Office, churches and hotel and the nearby village of Barrengarry.

Although this timber truss bridge was constructed to be a "permanent" structure, it was soon discovered that the bridge's condition was deteriorating. In 1893 two large girders and wire rope were placed under the structure for additional strength. At the same time, planning began for the replacement of the bridge with a new suspension bridge which was to become far-famed as "the greatest feat of engineering in the valley and the second greatest in the colony of New South Wales".

Farm amalgamations in the twentieth century have reduced the population greatly, and hobby farmers and retirees are increasingly attracted to the valley. Otherwise, the character of the township has not changed significantly in the last 130 years with a number of heritage buildings remaining. The valley is now a popular tourist destination with a range of accommodation choices available, including bed and breakfasts. The bridge forms an important landmark and an attraction, as well as to this day being still the main access across the Kangaroo River. The bridge is well known to those who reside in the valley, and to the wider public of Sydney and the South Coast region.

History of early bridges constructed in NSW

The first bridge constructed in NSW was built in 1788. The bridge was a simple timber bridge constructed over the Tank Stream, near what is today the intersection of Pitt and Bridge Streets in the Sydney central business district. Soon after its construction, it was washed away and needed to be replaced. The first "permanent" bridge in NSW was the first bridge's successor. This was a stone arch bridge with a span of 7 metres (24 ft) erected in 1803. However this was not a triumph of colonial bridge engineering, as it collapsed after only three years of service. It took a further five years for the bridge to be rebuilt in an improved form. Prior to the arrival of David Lennox in the Colony in 1832, NSW was without expert knowledge in bridge design and construction. Lennox, who had worked with the famous bridge engineer Thomas Telford, became the Superintendent of Bridges for NSW in 1833.

During the first 60 years of the Colony, the majority of bridges were built from stone or timber, in the same manner as bridges being constructed in Britain and Europe. Stone was the bridge building material of choice in NSW, with construction costs kept low by the use of convict labour. However, with the cessation of convict transportation in the 1840s and subsequent rise in labour costs, bridge designers were forced to explore the use of other materials in bridge construction, leading to the eventual adoption of timber as the economical alternative. The size and quantity of readily available Australian hardwoods in the 1800s allowed the design and construction of efficient timber truss bridge designs reaching respectable spans.

The history of the construction of suspension road bridges in NSW is rather limited compared to the more commonly built timber truss, steel, lift and concrete bridges that have been constructed in NSW since the 1800s. Suspension bridges have been more widely used as pedestrian bridges such as at river, creek and bay crossings (for example Hunter River, Moonan Flat and Parsley Bay, Vaucluse ).

The first suspension road bridge constructed in NSW was at Long Gully, Northbridge in Sydney that was opened to traffic in 1892.

It was built as a timber deck suspension bridge with steel cables and ornate sandstone turreted towers by private developers to promote future residential development to the north. The original suspension bridge was constructed with a 152 metres (500 ft) main span that was supported by steel cables and hanger rods. The deck was stiffened by an undertruss which was pin connected at the centre of the span. The steel cables were supported on sandstone towers and anchored into bedrock at each end of the gorge. The wooden deck contained two traffic lanes plus two tram tracks and pedestrian footways. Following taking ownership of Northbridge Bridge in 1935, the then Department of Main Roads carried out inspections of the bridge which revealed that significant corrosion was occurring in the steelwork and cables. It was decided to replace the suspension bridge with a reinforced concrete arch with the original sandstone towers retained. The bridge was re-opened to traffic in 1939.

Hampden Bridge at Kangaroo Valley was the second suspension bridge to be built in NSW and is now the only surviving suspension road bridge from the Nineteenth Century. It replaced a previous timber truss bridge built in 1879. The new bridge was designed by Ernest Macartney De Burgh. It is noteworthy that De Burgh, in 1894 designed a suspension pedestrian bridge at the village of Tuena, NSW. Whilst this bridge was of a differing design, it is likely that De Burgh had incorporated some of design calculations into the development of the design of Hampden Bridge. Hampden Bridge was opened in 1898.

Design and construction Design for the new suspension bridge to replace the deteriorating timber bridge began when the Department of Public Works Engineer, Ernest de Burgh visited the site on 21 April 1895 to survey the site for the new bridge. De Burgh's design for the bridge included stone towers quarried on site to support steel cables, steel hangers and timber decking with two stiffening trusses formed by the timber and steel railing of the bridge. De Burgh in the design of the stiffening trusses adopted the same design he had used on 20 freestanding timber truss bridges that were built between 1900 and 1905, for example Landsdowne Bridge over Mulwaree Ponds.