‘Open the bridge’: Residents meet to demand solution to Kirwans Bridge closure

A community meeting at Kirwans Bridge was held on Saturday, April 1, after five months of the bridge being closed.

For the 150-odd residents of Kirwans Bridge, and several hundred living in Nagambie and the surrounding areas, the closure has meant instead of driving a few kilometres into Nagambie, residents either need to drive an additional 17km around the unsealed Weir Rd, or travel through Murchison.

Residents spoke of the impact of the bridge closure on them — additional costs for at-home care, additional costs for fuel for businesses, additional travel time to see friends and loved ones.

The Kirwans Bridge CFA brigade has a quarter of its 16 members living on the other side of the bridge to the station, effectively leaving them out of action.

Likewise, some residents have been unable to get their children on the school bus easily, and said they had an escape route for bushfire or flood cut off with the bridge closed.

Resident Brenda Cooper lives on the Nagambie side of the bridge, and is one of the self-confessed “lucky ones”.

She addressed the crowd on Saturday, talking about the need for an ambulance.

“I would hate the thought of an ambulance not being able to get to me or my loved ones. Lives are at stake,” she said.

While addressing the crowd, a gust of wind picked up a gazebo, tearing its pegs out of the ground, and giving an 85-year-old in the crowd two serious gashes to his face — requiring an ambulance to be called.

It took nearly 25 minutes to arrive, longer than the 10 minutes it would normally take from Nagambie.

“We feel for all the people, these are our neighbours,” Ms Cooper said after the meeting.

“Weir Rd becomes a quagmire. If [council] goes through winter and does nothing with the road, how’s that ambulance like today going to get through?”

Weir Rd is at risk of flooding, and was under water during the October 2022 floods, with Strathbogie Shire Council meeting on Tuesday, April 11 to decide whether it will just seal the road, or if it will raise it 1.8 metres and seal the road.

When resident Keith Irwin first moved to Kirwans Bridge decades ago, the bridge was shut, and since then closures have been “ongoing”.

“You need it open,” he said.

“When my wife was sick we couldn’t get an ambulance. We had to get one to come from Heathcote to come across the dirt roads.”

He had serious doubts about the report council was leaning on to close the bridge.

It’s a concern shared by Kirwans Bridge Action Committee spokesperson Robyn Taylor, who said two reports prepared for council offered conflicting advice about the bridge’s safety.

The river’s peak at Kirwans Bridge was 1.9m, far smaller than the rest of the Goulburn River, with water only reaching the bottom of the bridge during the October floods.

GMR Engineering was commissioned by council to produce a report on whether the waterway was safe to open to river traffic, which council adopted in February.

Ms Taylor said that report also examined the structural integrity of the bridge, saying it was safe to open, which ran counter to the report from the bridge’s insurer, which council cited last week when it said it would keep the bridge closed.

The parts of the bridge that the insurer’s report said were “rotted through” hadn’t been used since 1955 and were not part of the substructure of the bridge, Ms Taylor said.

She said GMR Engineering’s “comprehensive” report said only minor repairs needed to be done to the bridge.

Ms Taylor said she thought the bridge should be opened, but if council was going to keep it closed it needed a transition plan.

“We need to get a transitional plan so we can have a river crossing open as soon as possible,” she said.

Strathbogie Shire Mayor Laura Binks said council had been working with the Kirwans Bridge Community Panel for 12 months to determine the bridge’s future.

“We knew the bridge needed significant work prior to the damage received during the October 2022 floods and did not want a Band-Aid solution,” Cr Binks said.

Cr Binks said the GMR report into the waterway reopening informed its decision on exactly that.

“This report was commissioned for the purpose of opening the waterway, not the bridge to traffic,” she said.

“This decision is made solely on the report commissioned by our insurers; that was commissioned for the purpose of opening the bridge to traffic.

“Council cannot reopen the bridge without the insurer’s approval.”

Cr Binks said council was “committed to a safe, sustainable, long-term future for Kirwans Bridge” and, through consultation with the community, was working through the two options identified by the community panel — rebuilding the bridge or undertaking extensive repairs.

“A visual inspection is complete, divers are expected to complete an underwater inspection in coming weeks, and following this we expect it will be at least six weeks for this report to be delivered,” Cr Binks said.

“We are now also seeking to understand if the engineers completing this can also cost and design the work needed to bring the bridge up to a standard where our insurers are satisfied it is safe to be reopened.”

Cr Binks said council would have to go to state and federal governments to secure funding to upgrade and repair the bridge, regardless of what decision was made.

“We know, even with a potential insurance payment, it is unlikely council will have the funds needed to complete the works that will ensure the bridge continues to operate for the next 50 or more years,” she said.

“Council has already raised the need for funding and the importance of this bridge many times with both the state and federal governments.”