2011: The Debut of a Replacement Bridge in the Australian State of Queensland

August 14, 2011

In northeastern Australia’s state of Queensland, a newly built bridge in the city of Mackay was officially opened. This road bridge, which crosses the Pioneer River, replaced another bridge that had stood at that location for about seven decades.

The first of these two bridges was inaugurated on March 30, 1938, by Euphemia Margaret Wilson Smith. She was the wife of William Forgan Smith, who served as premier of Queensland from 1932 to 1942. That structure was named the Forgan Bridge in memory of William Forgan Smith’s mother, Mary Smith, née Forgan.

Construction on a replacement bridge began in May 2008. Those who took part in the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the second version of the Forgan Bridge were Craig Wallace, minister for main roads of Queensland between 2009 and 2012; Tim Mulherin, member of the Queensland Parliament for Mackay from 1995 to 2015; and Colin Meng, mayor of Mackay between 2008 and 2012.

The current Forgan Bridge, which measures 1,591 feet (485 meters) in length, carries pedestrians as well motor vehicles across the Pioneer River. The accompanying photo of this bridge was taken prior to its formal opening.

Photo Credit: Ezykron (licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en)

Additional information on both versions of the Forgan Bridge is available at  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forgan_Bridge