History of Place
Whatever the historical problems relating to the original 'Jubilee Bridge' over Livingstone Creek, the story of the current timber structure at the site appears fairly clear. In 1917, with exceedingly heavy mining machinery from Glen Wills mines being demolished and carted out over the Glen Wills Road via Omeo, the Country Roads Board placed a three-ton load limit on all bridges on the Glen Wills Road.[9]Omeo Shire Council reports indicate that a letter was received from the CRB in August 1917, stating that tenders might be invited for the erection of a new 'Jubilee Bridge'.[10] The nature of that bridge's design was apparently then undecided, because tenders were called for alternative designs, one in reinforced concrete and one in timber.[11]The Country Roads Board was then very interested in concrete for Main Road bridges, but no tender appears to have been entered for the concrete option in that difficult war period. C. W. Talbot's tender of just under one thousand and fifty pounds for a timber bridge was successful.[12]
The first load of timber was delivered to the bridge site in mid-November 1917, and by mid-December it could be reported that 'All the box timber is cut and a large part of it delivered', while 'Stringybark deck planks are now being cut'.[13] The reference to 'box timber' suggests the use of Gippsland Grey Box for major bridge components, which would go far to explaining the extraordinary longevity of the current squared-timber stringers that are such a distinctive feature of Jubilee Bridge today. It is extremely unlikely that any other Victorian timber-beam bridge in use on a main road or State Highway can boast that its stringers lasted eighty years. It is probable that no other highway-bridge stringers go back fifty years. The peculiar nature of the Jubilee Bridge's old squared stringers and corbels, with their unique squared-timber 'keys' or 'dowels' locking them firmly together, indicates that they are certainly the originals of 1917. The original stringy bark transverse decking over spiking planks has long been replaced, and at some time since the 1930s the deck has been converted to a longitudinal deck in keeping with the bridge's function on a state highway.
Contractor Talbot struck problems with rock and water over the summer of 1918, but by mid-May 1918 it was reported by the Shire Engineer that 'all the piers are now complete and beams are across two spans'.[14] By mid-June 1918 it was reported that the bridge was expected to be completed in about a fortnight, and Jubilee Bridge was certainly operating by July of 1918. [15]
Jubilee Bridge is the oldest surviving Victorian timber road bridge whose plans required approval by the Country Roads Board before tenders could be called. The CRB funded little bridge construction during difficult and inflationary war years, and had barely begun to function when war broke out in 1914. For most of Jubilee Bridge's lengthy life span it has been maintained through State financial input as an important component of a Victorian state highway. Jubilee Bridge is the only known surviving Victorian timber bridge to have been built during World War 1. It was bypassed in 2001 when a new concrete bridge was built.