SWAMP BRIDGES & SWAMP DRAINS

varies IONA, Cardinia Shire

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Cardinia Shire

Swamp Bridges & Swamp Drains

Statement of Significance

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  • Physical Description 1

    SWAMP BRIDGES & SWAMP DRAINS - Physical Description 1

    The swamp drains for a rectilinear grid of small and large drains across the flat southern half of the Shire. They divide what is largely agricultural plots into finite areas with, sometimes, the road bridges and small crossover bridges as the only form of communication. The scale, if not the visual effect, of the project is immense. This drainage scheme was protracted such that today the drains are difficult to date but nevertheless each must be considered as part of one important campaign of achievement.
    
    Content:
    The following elements aid in expressing the special nature of this area. They include the drains but also the bridges needed to cross them. Since the survey in late 1994, early 1995, many of these bridges have been demolished and replaced with unrelated concrete structures.
    
    This work was done with the co-operation of the Shire and Melbourne Parks & Waterways.
    
    The current state of each bridge (in brackets) has been provided by Don Jackson who was in the Shire engineering department from the 1970s3.
    
    Elements:
    * Drainage network
    * Bunyip River bridge, Eleven Mile Road, Cora Lynn
    * Bunyip River bridge, Fourteen Mile Road, Iona
    * Deep Creek Bridge, McGregor Road, Pakenham South (now concrete)
    * Timber Bridge, Hall Road, Pakenham South (now concrete)
    * Timber Bridge, McDonalds Drain Road (East), Pakenham South (now concrete)4
    * Toomuc Creek bridge, Henry Road, Pakenham South (thought built late 1940s for Shire)
    * Timber Bridges, Ballarto Road, Pakenham (thought built by Shire in the 1950s-60s)
    * Timber Bridge, McKillops Road, Tynong South (now concrete)
    * Timber Bridge, Dessent Road, Garfield South
    * Timber Bridge, Main Drain Road (South), Iona
    * Timber bridge, Murray Road, Bunyip South
    * Timber bridge, Southbank Road, Bunyip South (thought rebuilt in the 1950s)
    * Bunyip River bridge, Nar Nar Goon Longwarry Road, Bunyip (now concrete)
    * Number Seven Drain bridge, Toner Road, Cora Lynn
    * Timber bridge, Bunyip Tonimbuk Road, Bunyip (now concrete)
    * Timber bridge, Brown Road, Pakenham (now concrete)
    
    The bridges are timber decked and framed and most have angle-rail timber balustrading.
    Some, such as the bridge over the Main Drain opposite St. Joseph's, Iona, have been reinforced with steel stringers.
    
    

    Physical Conditions

    SWAMP BRIDGES & SWAMP DRAINS - Physical Conditions

    Some bridge examples have been changed (renewal of the stringer supports, deck or the balustrade). More recently visually unrelated reinforced concrete bridges have replaced timber examples (see at Cora Lynn, near war memorial). The earth lined drains have been progressively added to and upgraded over time but take their original alignments.
    
    

    Historical Australian Themes

    SWAMP BRIDGES & SWAMP DRAINS - Historical Australian Themes

    Historical Themes

    3.7Swamp drainage projects for farmland

    6.2 Roads and bridges

    12.2 Evidence of: Floods

    Physical Description 2

    SWAMP BRIDGES & SWAMP DRAINS - Physical Description 2

    Associations - State Rivers & Water Supply Commission; Shire of Pakenham

    Heritage Study and Grading

    Heritage Study and Grading

    Cardinia - Cardinia Shire Heritage Study 1996

    Author: Graeme Butler & Associates
    Year: 1996
    Grading: Local

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