page_title: Alexandra Railway Bridge
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Alexandra Railway Bridge / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Construction of the Alexandra Railway Bridge at Rockhampton, 1898 First caisson of the railway bridge over the Fitzroy River, ready for launching.
context_page_description: Alexandra Railway Bridge is a heritage-listed railway bridge adjacent to North Street, Rockhampton, Rockhampton Region, Queensland, Australia. It was designed by Henry Charles Stanley and built from 1898 to 1899 by George Charles Willcocks. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 21 October 1992.
context_section_description: The Alexandra Railway Bridge, constructed in 1898-99, crosses the Fitzroy River and is an integral part of the original design of the Rockhampton Junction railway line, and is an important element in the development of the railway network in Queensland.
  The Archer brothers had made a private expedition to the Rockhampton district in 1853, and were the first Europeans to record and chart the Fitzroy River. The Archers were also the first European pastoralists to arrive in the area. Their establishment of Gracemere pastoral station lead to further pastoral expansion into the area.
  After the short lived Canoona gold rush of 1858, Rockhampton was proclaimed as a town and declared a "port of entry" in 1858. Following the gold rush the town of Rockhampton developed as an entry and export town for Central Queensland. Rockhampton continued to eclipse its nearest rival Gladstone for nearly a century as the principal port for central Queensland.
  In 1863 the Parliament of Queensland passed the controversial Railway Bill, which committed Queensland to the use of a narrow gauge for the development of its main line in Queensland. Other colonies in Australia at this time had adopted broader gauges for use on their rail networks. The reasoning behind this decision was that a narrow gauge would have lower construction costs.
  The first section of the Queensland railway network was opened between Ipswich and Bigges Camp (now Grandchester) on 31 July 1865, and later extended to link the towns of Warwick, Dalby and Toowoomba with Ipswich. At the time that the Railway Act had been passed, the 5000 citizens of Rockhampton objected to having no provision made for the construction of a railway to their hinterland, where copper was being exploited in the Peak Downs area. A railway was thought necessary to ensure development of the interior.
  The first length of line was opened to Westwood some 30 miles (48 km) from Rockhampton in 1867. The line was extended beyond the coastal ranges in 1872, reaching Emerald in 1879. The Central Western railway line was progressively extended further west reaching Longreach in 1892, and remained an isolated railway system, with no connection to the southern division of Queensland railways until 1903.
  In 1882 after Brisbane had acquired a railway to the seaside at Sandgate, Rockhampton clamoured for a similar connection to its resort at Emu Park. Construction of the Emu Park line was approved in 1885 and the line opened in 1888. The 1880s was a period of economic and civic expansion in Rockhampton as a result of the discovery and exploitation of the gold and ore body at Mount Morgan in the Dee Range forty kilometres from Rockhampton. A result of the isolation of Rockhampton from Brisbane, and the prosperity of the Mount Morgan mine, was the growth of the separatist movement which demanded separation of Northern Queensland from Brisbane. The colonial government of the period used railway construction, and the extension of the system, to counter the separation movement.
  The line, similar to Bundaberg, featured a railway system divided by a major river. In Rockhampton, this consisted of the Central Western line running from a terminus in Stanley Street to Gracemere and westwards, which had no physical connection to the line from North Rockhampton to Emu Park. Two years after the opening of the Emu Park line, the Railway Department began investigating the possibility of linking Rockhampton's two separate railways. The bridging of the Fitzroy River and the cost of land resumptions to join the two terminus stations were to be major difficulties in connecting the two lines.
  Trial surveys in 1890 investigated two routes, but the financial crisis of 1893 forestalled further work. The impetus for bridging the Fitzroy River came from the decision of the Queensland Government to construct a deepwater port at Broadmount at the mouth of the Fitzroy River in 1894, and to link the Central Western Railway with North Rockhampton via a bridge across the Fitzroy and a line running via Denison Street. The original plan called for a sin
caption: Construction of the Alexandra Railway Bridge at Rockhampton, 1898
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