Bulldozers roll in, but Tabulam unites in fight to save historic bridge that 'holds all the stories'
The town of Tabulam in northern New South Wales is mounting a last-ditch effort to save a historic timber bridge, despite losing a court case to stop its demolition.
The battle to save the bridge is being led by members of the Indigenous community and a grazier who say it is an important part of Aboriginal and settler history and deserves heritage protection.
The NSW land and environment court refused to issue an interlocutory injunction on Wednesday to stop the state’s roads department tearing down the 120-year-old bridge, two weeks after a new $48m concrete bridge was opened.
The Tabulam bridge is the longest single-span, wooden truss bridge in the southern hemisphere and was completed in 1903 by Indigenous and non-Indigenous men of the Upper Clarence Light Horse, a unit founded on nearby Tabulam Station by Boer war veteran Captain Charles Chauvel. Many of these men went on to fight for the 4th Light Horse Brigade in the 1917 battle of Beersheba in Palestine.
Demolition equipment and a work crew arrived on site this week and a fence was erected to keep the public out. A spokesperson for Transport for NSW said demolition work on the bridge was starting on Thursday.
Cattle farmer John Cousins initiated the court action on behalf of his town and organised a petition to save the bridge signed by 900 non-Indigenous residents, and 300 people from the nearby western Bundjalung Jubullum community.
“The bridge is a monument to men who went to war and fought in the battle of Beersheba,” he said. “There is no other war monument in the world that is built by the men it honours. This bridge holds all the stories together and when it goes, the stories will eventually be lost too.”
Cousins said he could not afford to appeal the court’s decision after being threatened with the cost of the government’s legal counsel – two solicitors and a barrister.
Bundjulung elder Lewis Walker, who is related to Walter “Tracker” Williams, one of the earliest known Aboriginal soldiers to serve with the Upper Clarence Light Horse, said destroying the bridge would be a tragedy.
“Our mob want this bridge saved,” Walker said. “This bridge is a story from when we grew up … and how our greatgrandfathers taught Chauvel’s men to ride horses. These are stories that need to be out there.”
Terrence Robinson from the Jana Ngalee landcouncil said the bridge sheltered a traditional Bundjalung birthing area and turtle hunting ground.
Queen Ponjam Derry, a great-grandmother of boxer Tony Mundine, also lived in a gunyah (bush hut) for many years under the bridge.
“When I found out the news, I shed a lot of tears,” Robinson said. “The area under this bridge and just beyond is where a lot of our loved ones were born and many were raised here. Now it’s just going to be torn down because of the cost of maintenance.”
The local National party MP and NSW agriculture minister, Adam Marshall, has previously stated that it
would cost $1m a year to maintain the bridge, which was listed on the NSW State Heritage Register in 2000, then delisted in 2016 after the NSW Roads and Maritime Service proposed replacing all timber truss bridges.
A Brisbane engineering company, engaged by John Cousins, estimated the cost of maintenance at about $50,000 a year. “I think the bridge was delisted from the heritage register on a lie, on another overinflated government costing,” Cousins said.
The state Labor MP, Janelle Saffin, has appealed to the Berejiklian government to stop the demolition.
Saffin said it had been inspiring to see the area’s pioneering communities and Jubullum families, many of whom live across the river from the town, unite in their campaign to save the bridge.
“It has been said with good reason that the bridge has divided the communities – Jubullum and Tabulam townships – but the fight to save the bridge has united these communities in a way that no reconciliation talk has,” Saffin said. “It has been a true reconciliation act.”
A spokesperson for NSW Roads and Maritime Services said all proper processes were followed in seeking approval for the demolition.
The spokesperson for Transport for NSW said extensive consultation with the community and key stakeholders had been carried out, including meetings with local shire councils and Aboriginal councils and all comments were “reviewed and considered as part of the final environmental determination to proceed with the project”. Community drop-in sessions were also held seeking feedback.
Transport for NSW was talking to local councils about reusing timbers from Tabulam to repair local bridges and put some on public display, the spokesperson said.