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Sportsman's Creek Bridge (1910) sited close to where the creek meets the Clarence River
Image: GeoLink |
As he stood on the now
dismantled Sportsmans Creek Bridge approaches, Lawrence Museum and Historical
Society president Rob Forbes held a series of letters that appalled him.
For the past two years,
based on a positive relationship with Roads and Maritime Services, the society
had made plans to reconstruct a full section of the bridge, preserving its
memory at the museum.
Now, with a change in
management, that agreement made has seemingly vanished, with RMS offering a
‘take it or leave it’ approach to what will be preserved.
“I’m appalled to think
that a small local historical society trying to save one of the most historic
and important structures in Lawrence has to record every single conversation
made with every single person we talked to so we don’t get shafted,” Mr Forbes
said.
Mr Forbes said for the
first stages of planning, the rapport with RMS could not have been better, with
RMS employees regularly visiting the museum to see what could be done.
“They couldn’t do enough
for us,” he said. “They even organised a license from the EPA so we could take
some of the building that was removed for the bridge which had lead paint.
“It carried over when we
wanted a section of the bridge. I stood in the museum with the representative
and we looked at the model so we were talking about the exact same thing.”
Originally it was agreed
two complete ends of one span (both sides of the structure) could be
reassembled to create a good representation of the bridge.
“The engineer at the
meeting said we could have two complete ends of one span and ‘probably’ also a
large amount of the other bridge timbers ‘if we wanted it’,” Mr Forbes said.
After the bridge was
demolished recently, and with a change in management at RMS, these verbal
agreements made months earlier were disregarded, according to Mr Forbes.
“An email was received
stating we could now have only two ends of one truss (one side of the structure
only) and 150 square metres of decking – and that this was non-negotiable,” he
said.
“We’ve even had emails
saying if we had a problem with the quality of the timber they’ll sell the
whole lot to salvage... and we feel pressured to sign the new agreement or
it’ll best lost forever.
“There was no agreement,
but when they said yes for two years, as far as I’m concerned the deal was done.”
A spokesman said RMS had
worked with the Lawrence community, including the museum and historical
society, throughout the Sportsmans Creek Bridge project.
“Roads and Maritime has
provided a replica of the bridge to the society to commemorate this historic
structure, along with an agreement to supply timbers from the old bridge for
re-use as a commemorative structure,” the spokesman said.
“The agreement includes
providing 150sqm of bridge decking timbers to be used as a floor to support the
old Ashby ferry, two ends of one truss (each end of one single truss) and
supports for display purposes only and transport of the timber and truss to the
museum.
“This agreement has not
changed and Roads and Maritime will continue to work with the historical
society to commemorate the old Sportsmans Creek timber truss bridge.”
The Lawrence Historical
Society urges people to show support for the cause by either contacting Mr
Forbes on 0412 715 805, or leaving comments on their Facebook page.
