Described as a way to never forget the past, a new permanent exhibition has opened at the Batemans Bay Heritage Museum to remember the old Batemans Bay Bridge.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
Known as the 'Crossing the Clyde' exhibition, the section of the museum features videos, old paperwork, signs and stories telling the story of how travellers crossed the Clyde River from canoes, to a ferry, to the old bridge to the new four laned highway bridge.
Most importantly, the exhibition features parts of the old bridge.
Honorary Curator, Myf Thompson opened the exhibition on November 21, 2022, exactly 66 years since the original Batemans Bay Bridge opened to the public.
"We chose this date specifically because we wanted it to be a heritage launch," she said.
"The exhibition was actually ready to go six weeks ago, but we held off because this date would have more impact.
"It just felt right launching it today."
READ MORE:
The project 'Crossing the Clyde' began when the group at the museum heard the iconic bridge in Batemans Bay was to be demolished.
The Batemans Bay Heritage Museum team reached out to John Holland (the construction team tasked with building the new bridge) and Transport NSW to see if they would be allowed to salvage old parts of the bridge for history purposes.
According to Ms Thompson, both John Holland and Transport NSW understood the significance of the bridge and allowed them to select sections of the bridge to keep.
"We decided to go with a construction theme by using a former site shed for the display," Ms Thompson said.
"But they (site sheds) aren't that large, so it affected what we could take."
The site shed is used to display the story of the old bridge to the new and was a site shed used by John Holland when creating the new bridge.
"They (John Holland) were great, they gave us $6000 to go toward buying the site shed, because they didn't own them, Eurobodalla-Shire council have us $2000 and we chipped in $2000 too," Ms Thompson said.
Along with the site shed which displays tools used to build the old bridge and documents from John Holland when creating the new bridge, are sections of the old infrastructure which reside outside.
Outside as part of the exhibition sits the original operating mechanism used before the bridge went electric, a chunk of the linked chain and one of the large wheels that hoisted the counterweights to lift the bridge.
The exhibition also features a section of security fencing which ran down the side of the pedestrian walkway, with the original love-locks people left on it, as well as numerous metal traffic signs.
"The heavy items were craned in last and placed around the site shed," Ms Thompson said.
"It was quite nerve wracking watching them be swung in, over our buildings."
The exhibition is now open to the public and Ms Thompson is hopeful this little bit of history will allow the evolution of the Clyde River crossing to be remembered forever.
"Everything has turned out so well," she said.