Tasman Bridge Reconstruction (1978) 

Travelled over the bridge into Hobart about 1 hour prior to the bridge coming down. Later, looked out the window of the hotel and said to brand new wife, "the bridge has fallen down", she said, "rubbish", the first and only time she was ever wrong. The next morning we could clearly see the two cars hanging precariously.

Such an interesting tone of narration in those days: No melodramatic, hyperbolic emotions like "the biggest bridge disaster in Australia's history"; no "heroes" during the collapse or the rebuild; no human blame for the "disaster"; no "fraught problems for the engineers" to overcome; no "genius innovations"; no jingoistic back-patting like "the largest ever bridge reconstruction in the history of the country". Just straight facts. So clear. So refreshing compared with the bullshit treatment a story like that would elicit in the MSM today.

Love this oldschool narrator voice, calming .

When ships are passing under the Tasman Bridge they stop traffic on both sides as a safety requirement now. Thats what my Aunt told me when I visited her in Tasmania.

We drove over the bridge hours before it was struck. I moved to the mainland in 1980. Every time I go home, I find it hard to drive over the bridge. I’m ok as a passenger, but not as the driver.

The bloke that owned the HQ Holden still has it to this day

Narrated by Stan Murrowood who worked at Radio 5AD Adelaide in the 70's .

I went to Montagu Bay Primary between 1977 and 1982 ... collecting off-cuts of huge steel cables after school was fun. All sorts of debris made its' way to my Rosny Hill tree house. Great video Libraries Tasmania.

Thanks so much for this! We had a rough couple of years in Tasmania in the 70s. The Blythe Star disaster in '73 and then the Tasman Bridge a couple of years later. I note the 'interesting' work clothes of many of the bridge workers, beanies, lumber jackets, leather shoes, only thing missing was a footy jumper! Great stuff.

The driver of the HQ Monaro and FB Holden were incredibly lucky .. good Holden luck

My grandfather worked on the bridge, he operated some of the cranes and without him the bridge would not be complete I like to think..

I went over the bridge a few months before the collapse while on a primary school trip from Vic. I remember the local coach driver boasted at the time that the Tasman Bridge was indestructible.

It's unbelievable how history has repeated itself nearly 50 years later in Baltimore a few days ago. So sad.

I was there 3 months after collapse on holiday from Qld took pictures. And again on February 78 Drove over repaired bridge in my 72 HQ Belmont panel Van 😄🤠🇦🇺

My mother missed the bridge going down by 3 or 4 minutes. And the EK Holden wagon was owned by my cousins sometime boss The HQ coupe is still around. It was bad news for eastern shore people as they had initially no real way of getting across except for a rough dirt road about 20 miles long too Bridgewater and then the same of bitumen back to the city. Soon after they got the ferryboat shuffle going with all sorts of craft and a bit later a temporary Bailey bridge across a few miles upstream. I visited a few times in that period. That pic driving up the bridge makes it look very steep which it is not. Though it has a fair rise.

I was aged 23 months when the bridge came down. I remember we used the old Bailey bridge after and it was a rattler

Thank goodness for Electric Eric doing this rebuild, everyone else still would have been scratching their heads to rebuild it if it wasn’t for him…

I left Hobart in September '61 and well remember the initial construction underway on both sides of the Derwent (I was almost 8 at the time). I revisited Hobart in November 1993 and took the boat ride between Constitution Dock and the Cadbury factory. Along the way, we were given a talk by one of the cruise personnel who described in detail the Lake Illawarra crash and the subsequent effect it had on Hobart. The effect was devastating (initially) with only one effective road across the Derwent (at Bridgewater) and it required a round trip of 40 or more kilometres - ferry services became an absolute necessity, provided they could get the ferries (some old ones came down from Sydney). Hobart airport also existed on the Eastern side so traffic between it and Hobart (CBD) was hampered. However the end result is remarkable with a third bridge (Bowen, as well as Bridgewater and Tasman) also built across the Derwent and the Eastern side now has a more independent outlook. The video is quite good but I would have liked to have seen the inclusion of diagrams to illustrate the various talking points (eg piles, decking etc). Still, thumbs up.

The snow was down very low on the mountain. Don't often see it settled that low!

Oldest brother was in the Australian Army spent over a year there . Helped out with transport on ferry's etc . Too young to remember much more.. incredibly it could have been a lot worse.

I was That was 55 years ago for me, and I had never had a chance to see how much work was involved at the time. The bridge is way to small these days for all the traffic.

That was pretty good how they made that movie on the reconstruction of the Hobart bridge write down to detail of all the engineering yes I do remember it when they were doing the work back then and when it was broken and half too

Not a Hi-Viz vest in sight, mercifully.

I crashed my mountain bike on here a few weeks ago, clipped the handle bars & over I went. I also almost needed a reconstruction.

Thanks for sharing and congratulations for completing such an excellent task.

Very impressive project

Thank you for uploading these hobart has changed an incredible amount

I live 5 mins away from our Tassie Bridge

This is so similar to the sunshine skyway bridge disaster.

I pray for the repose of the Captain and crew of the Lake Illawarra , May they all R I P !

Brilliant video, Thank you for uploading this.

Congratulations to all involved in this vital transport link.😁👌👌👏👏👏

"Water mains" crossing a river by bridge. Obviously that was and is WAY "cheaper" than removing debris and replacing underwater water mains.

Driven over it many times. When a boat passes under, all traffic is stopped.

Ayy been over dat bridge sooo many tiems

1:35 - An article about the HQ Holden perched over the edge of the bridge: www.carsguide.com.au/oversteer/this-hq-monaros-auto-transmission-casing-saved-an-entire-family-66872

Why didn't they just initially build a suspension bridge? They are specifically designed to span great distances and would only require towers on the shore of each side of the river. I just have never understood why they went with this design.

There was a film made about a tassie construction worker who worked on this bridge. He was a alcoholic an when he got sprung he'll chuck his grog over into the derwent river - i think i watch it at school ? sometime in the 70s , Does anybody out there remember this??....

Did they salvage the ship or leave it where it sank??

Surprised the ship has not been salvaged, in some ways thats good.

I wasn’t born when this happened, still very interesting to see tho

i reckon alot of people refused to go on the bridge for years after it was reconstructed.

At 5:16, the supports weighed 65 tons but moved into place with a 30 ton crane. Really?

Did this link Victoria to Tasmania?

Does anyone know how many cars, and people, ended up at the river bottom? Were the cars, and the bodies from the cars and the ship, all retrieved?

There certainly was much OH&S around in those day. Some of the working were just wear socks & street shoes....lol

So what are these "culturally sensitive" words that are inappropriate today?

Yep, 12 killed, two and a half years of work, and $X million dollars repair all because of an inattentive (maybe drunk) ship's captain, I believe. I loved PM Gough Whitlam's immediate comment at the time: "What sort of idiot steers a ship into a bridge" !!!

Typical they widened it because it was probably never going to cope with the traffic, all these projects never allow for future population growth.

I hate high bridges

Nothing changed about that bridge for me even if I watch the vid then go on it

Wasn't that bridge destroyed by a ship?

Bags of cement? Hollow "piles" driven through "the debris"? Concrete trucks on barges for a "pour"? Holy shit that "engineering" is sketchy as hell.

In our politically correct era, we need to ask, would the reconstruction have earned the 🌈✔ 🤔

Destruction of the bridge eventually caused me to leave Hobart forever.

The captain of the Lake Illawarra (Captain Coleslaw Pelc) went down with the ship didn't he? He was drunk on Melbourne Bitters and crashed into the bridge and then everyone in the cars up top saw the road fall away and they all sharted their pants and hit the brakes.

Why am I here???

Far too many offensive words and descriptions for me to watch! Wow, just wrap us all up in cotton wool and be done with it