Deck Boards Close

From deck level, the timber planks of McKillops Bridge run toward the far wall of the Snowy River gorge, two vehicle strips flanked by white handrails that narrow with the perspective of the single lane. Below the deck, 255 metres of timber decking rests on electric-arc-welded steel Warren trusses and five reinforced-concrete A-frame piers, the whole structure sitting in a deep gorge where McKillops Road crosses the Snowy River at Deddick Valley in East Gippsland. The Country Roads Board built the crossing in two stages. The first bridge was finished but never opened. On 8 January 1934, a flash flood off the Victoria and New South Wales border country rose 16 feet above any previously recorded height. Debris piled against the trusses for half a kilometre upstream; the pressure tore the superstructure off its piers and carried the wreck downstream toward Orbost. The opening had been planned for about 19 January 1934. The CRB rebuilt higher. The piers were raised 15 feet, the open A-frames filled in to shed flood debris, the original abutments turned into additional piers, and the steel trusses cantilevered back to the higher approaches. The replacement bridge opened on 20 December 1935, about 250 people present in the gorge. Mrs Lind cut the ribbon; the Minister for Public Works, the Hon. G. Goudie, dedicated the bridge to George McKillop, who had brought cattle through the crossing in 1835. Since that day the bridge has withstood every flood the Snowy has sent through the gorge. The big flows here come off Monaro storms below the Snowy dams; none has reached the height of the trusses. A 2012 VicRoads restoration replaced deck planks and handrails; a further round of timber replacement was completed by Transport Victoria in 2025. The deck photographed here in 2018 carries the marks of both the original construction and those decades of maintenance on one of Victoria's most remote road crossings.