Cabbage Tree Creek railway bridge

The construction contract was awarded to George Bashford & Co. The company decided that the rail bridge spanning Cabbage Tree Creek would use timber central piers rather than the permanent screw-piles that were to be driven into the bottom of Breakfast Creek. The rail crossing of Kedron Brook at Toombul would also use timber for the central piers. 

To ensure a speedy construction, iron rails were shipped to the banks of Cabbage Tree Creek during 1881 so that the rail line was laid from the direction of both banks. Thus the rail track was laid in the direction of Sandgate and in the direction of Toombul before the rail bridge over Cabbage Tree Creek was built. An innovation was to lay half a mile of track south of the creek using the new Livesay’s patent wrought iron sleepers that had been imported from Britain. These sleepers were packed underneath the track with gravel ballast, which made a smoother rail journey. But imported iron sleepers were far more expensive than the locally available hardwood, timber sleepers so this experiment was not repeated elsewhere on Brisbane’s suburban lines.

The first trains crossed the bridge on the way to Sandgate on 11 May 1882. At the meeting of the Sandgate Municipal Council held on 7 June 1897, it was reported that the 16-year old Cabbage Tree Creek rail bridge was in need of renewal. It was the volume of rail traffic, with seven trains crossing the bridge each day and with annual passenger numbers, particularly tourists increasing (from 2,155 tickets sold in 1885 to 9,214 tickets in 1910), that had put strain on the bridge. 

In July 1899, the demands on the Sandgate Line were such that a rail duplication project commenced to allow more trains to run. The line between Northgate and Nudgee Stations was completed by December but beyond Nudgee there were delays relating to the Cabbage Tree Creek rail bridge. There were delays awaiting the steel bridge girders that had to be shipped from Britain. The construction company Messrs McCormack successfully tendered for the contract to reconstruct the bridge as part of the duplication project. The contract was awarded on 7 December 1900.   

Because of a steel shortage, the company altered its plans. During 1901-02, day labourers rebuilt the Cabbage Tree Creek rail bridge using cast iron, criss-crossed, screw-pile piers rather than the standard steel piers to replace the 1881 timber piers driven into the creek bed. 

Screw-pile piers are quite rare within the Brisbane suburban rail network. The only other rail bridge that features screw-pier piles spans Nudgee Creek. In 1993, prominent railway historian John Kerr identified the Cabbage Tree Creek Rail Bridge as having heritage significance in his Queensland Rail Heritage Report.

1. Brisbane City Council, aerial photographs 1946 & 2009

2. Bow, Barbara, Welcome to Boondall, (Sandgate: Sandgate & Districts Historical Society, 1995)

3. Kerr, John 1988, Brunswick Street, Bowen Hills and Beyond: The Railways of the Northern Suburbs of Brisbane, Australian Railway Historical Society

4. John D Kerr, Queensland Rail Heritage Report Final report, July 1993. Prepared for DEH and Queensland Rail.

5. http://www.brisbanehistory.com/sandgate_rail.html