page_title: Hindmarsh Island
section_title: The Hindmarsh Island Bridge
hierarchical_section_title: Hindmarsh Island / The Hindmarsh Island Bridge
caption_attribution_description: The bridge over the Murray River which links Goolwa to Hindmarsh Island.
context_page_description: Hindmarsh Island is a sacred inland river island located in the lower Murray River near the town of Goolwa, South Australia.
  The island is a tourist destination, which has increased in popularity since the opening of the Hindmarsh Island bridge in 2001. Hindmarsh Island is 100.1 kilometres south east of the Adelaide city centre, around a 1-hour and 15 minute drive.
context_section_description: Length: 319 metres (1,047 feet)
  Height: 19 metres (62 feet)
  Width: 11 metres (36 feet)
  Clearance Height: 14 metres (46 feet)
  Building Company: Built Environs
  Construction Commenced:  October 1999
  Construction Finished: March 2001
  March 4, 2001 saw the official opening of the Hindmarsh Island Bridge linking the island to Goolwa.  The bridge became a focus of national controversy when a group of local Indigenous people (the Ngarrindjeri) and some landowners objected to its construction.  It was alleged that the Ngarrindjeri objectors fabricated the cultural significance of the island (the Secret Women's Business) in order to help fight the development.
  A later Royal Commission decided that the Secret Women's Business was made up. Construction was blocked by the Keating Government but given the go-ahead by the Howard Government in 1996.
  Five years after the Royal Commission findings, the Ngarrindjeri who had stated the bridge desecrated sites sacred to women were vindicated. Federal Court Judge, Mr Justice John von Doussa, in Chapman v Luminis Pty Ltd (No 5) found that "the evidence received by the Court on this topic is significantly different to that which was before the Royal Commission. Upon the evidence before this Court I am not satisfied that the restricted women's knowledge was fabricated or that it was not part of genuine Aboriginal tradition'. Further, Justice von Doussa found the nine Ngarrindjeri women who testified about their beliefs to be 'credible witnesses who genuinely hold the beliefs and recollections expressed by them'.
caption: View of the Hindmarsh Island Bridge from the Goolwa wharf.
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