Phillip Island is separated from mainland Victoria by nearly 5km at the Cowes/Stony Point end, but by only ½ km here at Newhaven/San Remo, however it’s treacherous water – the tidal velocity is 9 knots (nearly 20km/hr!) – watch it roiling & churning past the jetty. It is navigable though – the original inhabitants, the Bunurong, would spend spring and summer on the island, presumably crossing by canoe – I wonder if they regularly swam across? A friend of mine once saw a group of kangaroos swimming across, and I heard that the first teacher at Newhaven would row himself across & back every day.
According to “The First Phillip Island Bridge” by Stan McFee, from about 1908 a Mr. R. A. Grayden was “conveying passengers in a rowing boat across what is known as the Newhaven-San Remo Passage”; by the mid 1920s he was talking about the possibility of a bridge, but friends told him he was dreaming.
By the 1930s a private punt service was charging 10/- per vehicle and 2/6 per passenger to make the crossing (sometimes cars had to be driven through salt water to get onto the punt!) which, again according to Mr. McFee, “although filling a need at that time, restricted people from travelling to and fro as they wished, also restricted farmers from transporting their produce and stock to market”.
It took 25 years from its conception, but Mr. Grayden’s perseverance finally saw his dream of a bridge fulfilled. For such a significant achievement the commemorative plaque is rather disappointingly hidden away; it can be found at S38° 31.023 E145° 21.617, the Newhaven end of the bridge – the San Remo end was at the starting location.
The first bridge was 540m long, with a suspension span of 170m and a clearance of 12m to allow fishing boats to pass underneath. It was less than 6m wide, with 6 pedestrian refuges and cost between $50,000 - $60,000; due to cost constraints it only had a load limit of 6 tons.
Walk to waypoint 1 (where there is NO parking) at:
S 38 31.KL
E 145 21.MNP
Where:
ac = the number of planks across the bridge in the top path
fh = the number of planks across the bridge in the bottom path
j = the number of concrete pylons on the ground – could they be part of the first bridge?
K = ac / 2
L = a + f + j
M = f + h + 1
N = ac - fh
P = h - a
The bridge, not surprisingly, prompted an increase in visitors to Phillip Island, however difficulties eventually arose, due to the small load limit – large milk tankers couldn’t cross, and tourist buses had to unload before crossing! A new concrete bridge was built at a cost of $3,250,000 and opened on 21st November 1969. Interestingly, the new bridge was in the location Mr. Grayden originally felt was best. The bridge is 640m long and 10m wide, including the footpath.
The second Phillip Island bridge now struggles to cope with heavy traffic following large events (when the blue lines which you might have noticed on the main road are used to create an extra outbound lane); there are significant delays when a lane is closed due to breakdown, roadworks or to raise/lower the banners which often fly from the bridge; and crashes which totally close the bridge cause significant disruption, so now there’s talk of building a third Phillip Island bridge!
The cache can be found (without walking on the road) at:
S 38 31.BRI
E 145 22.DGE
Where:
qstuvwx = the number at waypoint 1
B = s / u
R = v - x
I = t
D = w
G = q
E = v - x
For a more intimate experience of this crossing, come back in late summer to participate in the annual Channel Challenge – a 500m swim across the channel followed by a 2.5km run back across the bridge and into San Remo.
The cache fits very snugly in its location, so please don't jam it back in too far!