Bridge, Lonsdale Street, Dandenong, early 1930s

Looking across the bridge over the Dandenong Creek towards the intersection of Foster Street in the early 1930's. the Peace Memorial Bridge was opened for traffic on the 24th August 1919. The bridge commemorates the declaration of peace in 1919 and is also dedicated to those who gave their lives to save 
civilisation.

The Treaty of Versailles was one of the peace treaties at the end of World War One. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June 1919, exactly five years after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The other Central Powers on the German side of World War One were dealt with in separate treaties. Although the armistice signed on 11 November 1918, ended the actual fighting, it took six months of negotiations at the Paris Peace Conference to conclude the peace treaty.

Once described as ‘one of the best bridges in Victoria. With the park facing wall removed, the bridge still carries a portion of the Princes Highway over the Dandenong Creek on the railway side.
Over the years ‘the rapids of Dandenong’, so described once by the poet Adam Lindsay Gordon, have swept away more than one bridge in the area. The first bridge over Dandenong Creek was constructed in 1840. A flood swept this away ten years later and it was replaced.

The stone bridge, built in 1866, probably by Robert Huckson, lasted 52 years. Part of it was granite, quarried locally from the vicinity of Wedge and Power Streets. The integrity was undermined by repeated floods, rendering the bridge unsafe for use. Some of the stones were scattered along the creek to build it up after the erosion damage that had been caused by previous flooding.

When the Highway was duplicated, land taken from the Dandenong Park side of the Highway, as it continues from Foster Street, past the creek towards Webster Street, was used for the extra lanes. When duplicating the Dandenong Creek Bridge, the park facing wall of the Peace Memorial Bridge was removed, as the extra bridge/carriageway was added on the Park side creating the present bridge.

For more images like this visit us at https://www.facebook.com/olddandenong/