01-08-2025
Cuttagee community fights to save 130yo timber bridge amid plan for concrete replacement
Sheena Boughen often travels over the single-lane timber bridge at Cuttagee on the New South Wales far south coast, stopping to give way to oncoming traffic.
"You have this little moment of just looking around," the Barragga Bay local said.
"There's a moment in time where you've got a chance to pause. You've got a chance to breathe."
For some, the 110-metre long Cuttagee bridge is considered tricky to manoeuvre, but most locals, like Ms Boughen, are used to its quirks.
Built in 1892, the bridge features on a tourist drive from Bermagui south to Tathra.
But now it is nearing the end of its functional life span and could possibly be replaced with a two-lane concrete bridge next year.
For the small coastal community, the saying "build a bridge and get over it" is not that simple.
The Bega Valley Shire Council — which is responsible for about 30 wooden bridges — announced in 2021 it would need to replace the aging timber structure.
Mayor Russell Fitzpatrick said most of the 133-year-old bridge had been renewed over time, but it could pose safety risks and be subject to further weight limits, impacting local industry and emergency service vehicles.
"We need to make sure they are safe and can be crossed at all times," Cr Fitzpatrick said.
The council is looking at three options: a single-lane hybrid concrete and timber bridge, a two-lane hybrid bridge, or a two-lane concrete bridge.
Ms Boughen opposed the concrete bridge option and said she was "totally committed to keeping the slowness of the bridge".
"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."
The Cuttagee Bridge is one of five single-lane wooden bridges along a 43-kilometre stretch of the Bega Valley coastline and on the main road access for several small communities.
"Council's stuck with trying to fund a whole lot of themselves, it's not financially viable," Cr Fitzpatrick said.
The local council is required to preserve heritage in the new bridge design, which will be chosen after an external engineering study outlines options this year.
"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," Cr Fitzpatrick said.
Sheena Boughen helped start the community advocacy group "Save Cuttagee Bridge" in 2021 and amassed more than 14,000 online signatures over four years, supporting a one-lane timber bridge.
Ms Boughen also has concerns that a two-lane bridge would be unsafe in an area busy with beach users during the summer.
Bridge designer John Hilton said there were up to 5,000 timber bridges still in use across the country, and councils were grappling with financing the "aged bridge stock".
Mr Hilton said the modern bridge industry was focused on concrete bridges and was not "well-acquainted" with timber anymore.
"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, very difficult and costly to get the industry set up for it.
"It's a matter of picking which bridges we're going to keep as timber and which bridges that we will replace in concrete."
Mr Hilton said, despite a scarcity of good timber, he wanted to see councils "retain a representative number".
"The feel of timber, the smell of timber, the sound that vehicles make when they cross a timber bridge," he said.
"It just has some magic there."
