Bridging the Hawkesbury River: Part 1
When the first railway bridge over the Hawkesbury River was opened on May 1, 1889, it completed the final link in a rail system that linked NSW with South Australia, Victoria and Queensland - albeit not with uniform gauges. Official souvenir brochure to mark the opening of the first Hawkesbury River railway bridge. The rail line that linked Homebush (now known as Strathfield) with Waratah had been one of the toughest pieces of railway engineering yet tackled in the Australian colonies (Australia as a nation had not yet materialised). With river crossings to make and tunnels…