Residents along the New South Wales south coast are campaigning to save the 130-year-old timber bridge at Cuttagee, as the Bega Valley Shire Council weighs up options to replace it with a concrete bridge. Built in 1892, the single-lane, 110-metre bridge is a familiar landmark on the scenic coastal route between Bermagui and Tathra. And whilst some motorists find its narrowness inconvenient, many locals say it enhances the area’s charm and encourages a slower, more reflective pace.
For Barragga Bay resident Sheena Boughen, who regularly crosses the bridge, the experience is meditative: “You have this little moment of just looking around,” she told ABC South East NSW on Friday. “There’s a moment in time where you’ve got a chance to pause. You’ve got a chance to breathe.”
The council, which oversees 30 timber bridges, announced in 2021 that the aging structure may need to be replaced due to safety concerns and escalating maintenance costs. At the time, Mayor Russell Fitzpatrick said public safety is the top priority: “We need to make sure they are safe and can be crossed at all times,” he said. “We need to make sure the school bus, when it goes across, doesn’t fall in. We need to have public safety. That’s number one. And in a disaster, we need an evacuation route.”
As it stands, three design options are under review: a single-lane hybrid bridge using timber and concrete, a two-lane hybrid version, and a full two-lane concrete bridge, with the final decision (expected later this year) to come after an engineering study and public consultation.
Boughen, who co-founded the “Save Cuttagee Bridge” campaign in 2021, is strongly opposed to a concrete replacement:
“We don’t want to lose the character or the fabric of a timber bridge,” she said. “[A concrete bridge] has no identity and it doesn’t embrace the magnificent setting of this place where nature really should be the dominant voice.”
Sheena Boughen, co-founder of the “Save Cuttagee Bridge” campaign.
The bridge is one of five single-lane timber crossings along a 43-kilometre stretch of coastline and serves as a vital link for nearby communities. Boughen also raised concerns about the safety implications of a two-lane design. “As soon as you put in a two-lane road, that doesn’t encourage people — or necessitate them — to stop. Speed happens, it’s just unsafe,” she said.
Bridge designer John Hilton noted that while timber bridges remain in use across Australia, the industry has largely shifted to concrete construction: “We’re not in a position to replace all the timber bridges in Australia with new timber bridges,” he said. “We don’t have the materials to do that. The industry’s not set up for it, and it would be very difficult.”
Mayor Fitzpatrick acknowledged the challenge of balancing heritage preservation with safety and financial feasibility. “You’ll always have people for and against different things … what you’ve got to balance is what is in the best interest of the community,” he said.
Meanwhile, timber engineering experts say alternatives to concrete are viable.
Professor Keith Crews, a leading authority on bridge design, told Wood Central earlier this year that new timber technologies such as stress-laminated systems meet national standards and offer long-term durability. “There are (numerous types of) timber-based technologies that can be used to meet the requirements of the national (AUSTROADS) bridge design code,” he said. Crews noted that while older timber girder bridges had shorter lifespans and limited load capacity, modern timber bridges are designed for 100-year service lives and full vehicular loads under AS 5100.2.
Meanwhile, Timber Restoration Services, which specialises in restoring heritage bridges, argues that age alone shouldn’t justify demolition. “When built and maintained properly, wooden bridges can last 200 years,” a company spokesperson said, citing examples like the Bodoga Bridge in Sri Lanka and several 200-year-old structures in the United States. “Structures shouldn’t be destroyed just because they’re old. Like the trees from which they originated, we believe that timber structures acquire grace and story as they age.”
- To learn more about options available to engineers in restoring thousands of timber bridges across Australia, click here for Wood Central’s special feature.
