Here we are, and thank you Theo...
In what Australian town are these two points of interest?
Where Am I? Game
What we see in the two photos above are the remnants of a very long bridge across the floodplain adjacent to the town. This bridge was always a landmark for travellers prior to it being replaced by a concrete bridge which formed a large part of a bypass which took the very busy highway away from the town.
Another feature of this town is that there is a tremendous collection of photos from the late 1800s and through the first quarter of the 1900s. These were taken by one person and fortunately the glass-plate negatives were recovered and restored to provide a great historical record. Here is the bridge in the days when pedestrian traffic was more prolific than the semi-trailers which rumbled over it into the 1970s:
In fact, this is a viaduct across the floodplain, and it's the second one to have been built. The first, built about 1875 if I recall correctly, sloped downwards towards the town end and thus didn't provide access when the area was flooded. It was rebuilt to be level all the way across in the 1890s, so this following photo shows it was successful in allowing passage in flood times.
As can be seen, this is taken from the town end (as are my pics above) and at the other end the road curves to the right onto the actual bridge over the river.
This bridge was very substantial and remains today.
I cannot emphasise enough the importance and standing of this old bridge. Travellers on a very busy highway drove across it in their thousands for many decades and it formed a vital link in the transport network.
Reading your historic notes, it must be Gundagai. I have been there.
Prince Alfred bridge:
[ Edit: Edited on 16 Jul 2024, 08:33 GMT by theo1006 ]
A great photo, Theo, and of course you are correct...
The railway viaduct in the background, the derelict road viaduct in the foreground. Those who wanted it preserved, which would have been nice, were simply told, "The price to restore the bridge would be the cost of building it." It was never going to happen, sadly.
Also sad was the loss of a third of the population of the town, 89 souls, when the original town was centered down on that floodplain. The rushing waters in 1852 left just three buildings standing.
The doctor, Dr Charles Gabriel, left a wonderful legacy, but it was Oscar Bell (no relation) who instigated the restoration of the glass plates by the Australian Film and Sound Archives in Canberra. Almost 1,000 photos survive, which includes some by other photographers. But by and large they were the work of Charles Gabriel.
In my time in Gundagai working one weekend I looked through the gallery. There was a man there, a man whose background included assisting Oscar, and I said to him, "I do perceive that the good doctor had an eye for the ladies!" Among them were good looking nurses, glamorous young ladies holding parasols, all in the foreground of the photos.
There was no response from this gentleman, at least not until a lady who was seated nearby doing some bookwork got up and left the room. He then sidled up to me and told me this story about the good doctor.
"Old Oscar told me," he began, "that when he was about eight or nine he needed some treatment at the hospital at Wagga. The doctor was taking his sulky to Wagga and so arranged for the lad to ride with him. Also on the sulky was the head nurse from the Gundagai hospital."
"As they went across the road through Nangus," he continued, "the doctor pulled the sulky up on top of a bridge. Handing the reins to the boy he said, 'You hold the horses, boy, the nurse and I have to inspect something under the bridge."
And Theo, did you also see the item in the first pic...
...Rusconi's Marble Masterpiece? It was made by Frank Rusconi, commencing in 1910 and completing the job in 1938. There are 20,948 pieces of Australian marble in the creation, some as small as 3mm cubed. He made a lathe to turn up the round pieces from a sewing machine, he had to recondition this twice more before the job was done. Rusconi also carved the dog on the tuckerbox a few kilometers out of town.
I suggest to anyone who goes to Gundagai, or even near there, to find their way to the Information Centre in town and don't think about it, just give them the gold coin they ask and go in and hear the recorded message. And stay while it plays again. Absolutely incredible.
Anyway, it's your turn again, Theo...
Thanks, Ray Bell. I regret I did not see that marble sculpture.
Let's start with this one. Anyone who has been there should recognize it:
Is it New Zealand?
Quoting Ray Bell
Is it New Zealand?
No, it's in the Ring of Fire.
Evidently no one has been here.
Though I found information on the internet that in 2015 there were 150,000 visitors, and their number is only rising. Though I guess most of them do not go down into he crater, because of the stinging sulphur fumes.
I was there for the first time in december 1969 going on horseback. Unfortunately I have no pics of that visit. Nowadays it is a tough walk uphill of an hour or so, from the car park.
Now what is it's name?
[ Edit: Edited on 17 Jul 2024, 15:26 GMT by theo1006 ]
As these photo's don't seem to ring a bell, here are some sights from the general area.
On the road going down to the nearest harbour:
View of the harbour from the ferry:
There is a Ring of Fire road/tour in Yellowstone National Park, but I don't think that is what is being pictured here.
Ring of Fire means around the Pacific Ocean (to me). So the coast of South America from Chile north, to Alaska, and Japan plus Indonesia and the south Pacific and I think it would include New Zealand. We have ruled out New Zealand, and some of the structures look Oriental to me, so is this place in Japan?