Pitfield Bridge

{{Use Australian English|date=March 2018}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2018}}

{{Infobox Bridge |

|image=

|bridge_name = Pitfield bridge

|locale=Rokewood, Victoria, Australia

|coordinates = {{coord|-37.808525|143.585649|display=inline,title}}

|carries= [C143] Rokewood-Skipton Road

|crosses=Woady Yaloak Creek

|open=c1859; c1898 (reconstructed spans)

|below=

|design= Wrought Iron Warren truss

|mainspan= {{convert|26|m|ftin}}[http://vhd.heritage.vic.gov.au/places/result_detail/71575 National Trust Register citation B7227]

|length= {{convert|53|m|ftin}}

|width= {{convert|6.1|m|ftin}} }}

File:CressyBridge.JPG

Pitfield Bridge, is a riveted wrought iron, Warren truss road bridge, located over the Woady Yaloak Creek on the Rokewood-Skipton Road near Pitfield in Victoria, Australia. The bridge was originally constructed in the late 1850s, by the Woady Yallock Roads Board, and modified later in the century by construction of a large riveted wrought iron truss span.

A wooden bridge was evidently in place in 1859, when the Victorian parliament called for the approaches to the bridge to be improved.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article7309226 |title=PARLIAMENTARY INTELLIGENCE. |newspaper=The Argus |location=Melbourne |date=4 February 1859 |accessdate=18 October 2014 |page=6 |publisher=National Library of Australia}} The bridge is on the same road as McMillans Bridge which was erected by the Victorian Central Road Board around the same time to a design of Charles Rowland, a student of prominent colonial engineer David Lennox.{{cite web | url=http://vhd.heritage.vic.gov.au/places/result_detail/71575 | title=Pitfield Bridge (B7227) | publisher=Heritage Victoria | work=Victorian Heritage Database | accessdate=7 July 2014}} Repairs, presumably to the timber spans, were made in the same year, suggesting the bridge had already been standing for some time.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article150075312 |title=[BY ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.] LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY. |newspaper=Geelong Advertiser |date=21 January 1859 |accessdate=17 October 2014 |page=2 |publisher=National Library of Australia}} Repairs were eventually carried out in 1863.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article72511598 |title=WOADY YALOAK ROAD BOARD. |newspaper=The Star |location=Ballarat, Vic. |date=20 November 1863 |accessdate=17 October 2014 |page=3 |publisher=National Library of Australia}}

Later in the century the timber span was replaced with a riveted wrought iron truss designed by Charles Anthony Corbett Wilson for the Shire of Grenville. Wilson was influenced in this bridge design by the efficient and lightweight truss designs of Professor W. C. Kernot of Melbourne University. He was also a particularly prolific Victorian shire engineer, whose career spanned more than 50 years. The bridge was on a historical route between Geelong and the 1850s goldfields at Ararat and Streatham.Alsop, P. F. B, 1999, A History of McMillans Bridge over Mt Misery Creek on the Rokewood-Skipton Road in the Shires of Leigh and Grenville Victoria A notice of £400 being allocated to the bridge suggests the new trusses were installed in 1898.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article86330112 |title=LATEST INTELLIGENCE. |newspaper=Bairnsdale Advertiser and Tambo and Omeo Chronicle |location=Vic. |date=4 August 1898 |accessdate=18 October 2014 |page=2 Edition: morning |publisher=National Library of Australia}} However, repair works on the bridge were also carried out in 1900.[http://www.parliament.vic.gov.au/images/stories/documents/assembly/Votes_volumes/Votes_&_Proceedings_1900_S1.pdf Parliament of Victoria, Votes_&_Proceedings 1900 Division No. 63. ROAD WORKS AND BRIDGES. p.82] In 1967, the Rokewood-Skipton Road was realigned at Pitfield and a new bridge was built over the Woady Yaloak Creek.

The timber deck has a single layer of longitudinal planking on timber cross beams, which are bolted to the flanges of the truss top chords. Most of the timber has now rotted away. The bridge has two spans of 26 metres long with a deck about 7 metres wide. The wrought-iron Warren trusses are of unusually light construction, with each member sized according to the relative force applied.

The Bridge is registered by the National Trust of Australia.