A history of Freo’s bridges
The Bridge of Sticks: Convicts, Controversy and Community
LONG before the familiar 1939 Fremantle Traffic Bridge became part of daily life, an earlier crossing connected Fremantle and North Fremantle across the Swan River.
Known as the Styx Bridge — and remembered in Audrey Fowler’s account in the Fremantle Society newsletter as the “Bridge of Sticks” — it was an ambitious piece of colonial infrastructure built with convict labour, opening on November 21, 1866.
At a time when the Swan River was a working waterway and Fremantle’s connections with the settlements upriver were still developing, a permanent crossing promised to make travel more reliable than depending on boats and ferries.
But even as it was being built, the bridge was surrounded by controversy, with its design drawing criticism from river traders known as lightermen.
In May 1866, the Perth Gazette reported concerns that the structure’s arch would prevent boats with masts higher than 36 feet from passing beneath it.
Lightermen
The newspaper questioned whether the design was suitable for the site, warning it could pose a serious obstacle to river navigation. The bridge also faced opposition from colonists who believed the project was diverting resources from other public works, according to the WA State heritage assessment.
The controversy reflected the challenge of building a road crossing across a river that was still an important transport route in its own right.
Plans for the bridge were prepared under the direction of Royal Engineers officer Captain Grain and clerk of works James Manning, with construction beginning in 1863.
Fowler’s historical account describes the bridge as part of a wider program of public works under governor John Hampton, who arrived in the colony in 1862 and pursued an aggressive approach to convict labour.
The men assigned to the project did more than drive timber piles into the riverbed. Convict gangs also quarried limestone and carried material for the embankments and approaches.
Fowler records that the work was initially hampered by the use of leg-irons and chains. As construction progressed, it became apparent that the men needed greater freedom of movement to carry out the work effectively.
The bridge’s foundations were a substantial undertaking. Fowler noted that the first tier of six piles required an aggregate impact of 5,026 tons to drive them into the riverbed.
The result was a long timber structure, supported by hundreds of jarrah piles, with a distinctive hump in the middle to allow sailing lighters to pass underneath.
Its forest of timber supports gave it the nickname “Bridge of Sticks”. The name was later corrupted to “Styx”, although the suggestion that this was a deliberate reference by convicts to the mythological river separating the living from the underworld remains an unproven explanation.
Despite the scale of the undertaking, the bridge’s opening appears to have passed with little official fanfare.
According to Fowler, governor Hampton had driven across the bridge in his carriage on November 14, 1866, shortly before it was opened to general traffic.
• In 1926 floods upriver caused the bridge to collapse. Styx Bridge is in the background.
Connected
The Perth Gazette reported the following week: “The Fremantle Bridge was thrown open at noon on Wednesday for general traffic, and the ferry boat has been removed.”
The date was November 21, 1866, marking the end of the ferry crossing that had connected Fremantle with the north bank.
The bridge was not entirely finished, however. Fowler records that further work continued into 1867, including quarrying limestone for paving and constructing a sea wall. Other historical accounts give October 1867 as the date of its formal completion.
The lack of an official celebration did not go unnoticed.
In an account published in the Inquirer on November 28, 1866, a Fremantle correspondent described how the Volunteer Corps assembled for a moonlight march on the evening after the bridge opened.
The band led the volunteers through town, attracting a “numerous concourse” of residents who joined the procession to North Fremantle.
After crossing the bridge, the crowd returned and halted in the middle of the structure, where Captain Manning addressed those assembled.
According to the Inquirer, Manning spoke of the bridge as a great benefit to the colony and regretted that no public rejoicing had marked the opening of what he regarded as its most important work yet accomplished by convict labour.
The volunteers then gave three cheers for the governor before marching back towards Fremantle, followed by children who raised a cloud of dust.
By the early 1890s, concerns about its safety led to restrictions on the loads it could carry. A second, lower bridge was built alongside it in 1898 to accommodate road traffic, while the original high-level structure was eventually adapted to carry trams as well as other traffic.
In 1909, the hump was removed and the bridge widened, changing the structure that had originally been designed to accommodate sailing vessels.
The old crossing remained in use until the 1939 Fremantle Traffic Bridge replaced it. Its surviving timber piles became reminders of the earlier structure and the generations who had crossed the river on it.