Dickabram Bridge and the moon

 As some of you may know, my father was a civil engineer and was responsible for the maintenance of the railway track and rail bridges in the area around Maryborough which was a major train centre in Queensland for many years. He would often go on trips to inspect the lines, but he never mentioned a curious bridge that we decided to visit since we needed an outing.

It was a lovely drive south of Tiaro following back roads away from the main highway.

The Dickabram Bridge can take both rail line and road traffic. It was built in 1885-86 and is heritage listed but has been closed

There is a park (with public toilets) at the western end of the bridge. Incidentally, there is a website and app showing the location of all public toilets in Australia. Of course, in the USA you just go to the nearest McDonald's.

Looking to the east.

The Mary River. It flows into the sea just a few miles south of us.

You can see the deck of the bridge is well above the water level of the river, but the deck was submerged in 1893 and almost submerged in 1955. 

As you can see, the decking timbers are a bit rumpty. The car tires make quite a din driving over the bridge and it is anything but a smooth ride.

There has been plenty of rain so the grass is quite green.

You might be able to see a bloke sitting on the park bench. We chatted to him for a while about the bridge and the local area.

The old rails have been removed and I have not been able to discover when the last train crossed the bridge but here is a video of the penultimate train crossing the bridge.

And here is a video of a steam engine crossing the bridge in 1984.

And last, but not least, the bridge is apparently haunted by the ghost of a worker who is entombed in one of the foundations.

Our car is in the foreground. The car in the background belongs to a woman who is living in it with a bunch of dogs. The pandemic has caused a mass migration of southerners to Queensland. The cost of renting has risen dramatically so many people are doing it tough.

We drove back home over the bridge. It was a lovely trip.

A few days later, there was an eclipse of the moon just at dusk. luckily we had a wonderful view. There were a few boats out on the water getting the same view.

It's amazing what little zoom cameras can do these days.