Boorloo Bridge is a pedestrian and cycle crossing comprising two

cable-stayed bridge A cable-stayed bridge has one or more ''towers'' (or ''pylons''), from which wire rope, cables support the bridge deck. A distinctive feature are the cables or wikt:stay#Etymology 3, stays, which run directly from the tower to the deck, norm ...

s about apart that span two separate channels of the Swan River in

Perth Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...

Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...

. These two bridges are connected by the

pedestrian A pedestrian is a person traveling on foot, by wheelchair or with other mobility aids. Streets and roads often have a designated footpath for pedestrian traffic, called the '' sidewalk'' in North American English, the ''pavement'' in British En ...

and

cycle path A bike path or a cycle path is a bikeway separated from motorized traffic and dedicated to cycling or shared with pedestrians or other non-motorized users. In the US a bike path sometimes encompasses ''shared use paths'', "multi-use path", or "C ...

across

Heirisson Island Heirisson Island is an artificially created island in the Swan River in Western Australia at the eastern end of Perth Water, within the suburb of East Perth. It occupies an area of , and is connected to the two foreshores by the Causeway and th ...

that they carry to the

East Perth East is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the fact that eas ...

and Victoria Park foreshores. The crossing facilitates the linking of the East Perth side of the river with the Victoria Park side, and is located slightly downstream of

the Causeway The Causeway is an arterial traffic crossing in Perth, Western Australia, linking the inner-city suburbs of East Perth, Western Australia, East Perth and Victoria Park, Western Australia, Victoria Park. It is carried over the Swan River (Weste ...

, the existing road crossing between the East Perth and Victoria Park sides across the island also carried over the river by two bridges. Construction began in March 2023, and the two bridges were opened on 22 December 2024. The project was known during construction as the Causeway Pedestrian and Cyclist Bridges and was later named Boorloo Bridge (

singular Singular may refer to: * Singular, the grammatical number that denotes a unit quantity, as opposed to the plural and other forms * Singular or sounder, a group of boar, see List of animal names * Singular (band), a Thai jazz pop duo *'' Singula ...

) after the

Noongar The Noongar (, also spelt Noongah, Nyungar , Nyoongar, Nyoongah, Nyungah, Nyugah, and Yunga ) are Aboriginal Australian people who live in the South West, Western Australia, south-west corner of Western Australia, from Geraldton, Western Aus ...

name for Perth, .

Design

The two bridges, built with of

weathering steel Weathering steel, often referred to by the genericised trademark COR-TEN steel and sometimes written without the hyphen as corten steel, is a group of steel alloys that form a stable external layer of rust that eliminates the need for painting ...

and of cabling, are approximately downstream of the Causeway. Separated by an approximately path across Heirisson Island, the East-Perth-side bridge is about long and the Victoria-Park-side bridge is about long. The path carried by the two bridges across Swan River and that connects them across Heirisson Island is a segregated path. The bridges are S-shaped and represent a

Wagyl The Wagyl (also written Waugal, Waagal, and variants) is the Noongar manifestation of the Rainbow Serpent in Australian Aboriginal religion and mythology, from the culture based around the south-west of Western Australia. The Noongar describe th ...

, the

manifestation of the

Rainbow Serpent The Rainbow Serpent or Rainbow Snake is a common deity often seen as the Creator deity, creator God, known by numerous names in different Australian Aboriginal languages by the many List of Australian Aboriginal group names, different Aborigina ...

Australian Aboriginal religion and mythology Australian Aboriginal religion and mythology is the sacred spirituality represented in the stories performed by Aboriginal Australians within each of the language groups across Australia in their ceremonies. Aboriginal spirituality includes ...

. There are three pylons in total. Two pylons are shaped to resemble Aboriginal

digging stick A digging stick, sometimes called a yam stick, is a wooden implement used primarily by subsistence-based cultures to dig out underground food such as roots and tubers, tilling the soil, or burrowing animals and anthills. It is a term used in a ...

s and one pylon is shaped to resemble a

boomerang A boomerang () is a thrown tool typically constructed with airfoil sections and designed to spin about an axis perpendicular to the direction of its flight, designed to return to the thrower. The origin of the word is from Australian Aborigin ...

Lighting display

All of the bridge's

stay cable Steel wire rope (right hand lang lay) Wire rope is composed of as few as two solid, metal wires twisted into a helix that forms a composite ''rope'', in a pattern known as ''laid rope''. Larger diameter wire rope consists of multiple strands of ...

swhich are between longincorporate individually controllable LED modules spaced apart. There are a total of 17,130 modules installed across both spans and together can be used to display messages and images.

History

The Causeway's narrow footpath necessitated a dedicated pedestrian and cycling bridge; in 2021 the Causeway catered "to about 1,400 cyclists and 1,900 pedestrians daily". The bridge was announced on 26 August 2020, with an estimated cost of , jointly funded by the state and federal governments under the "Perth City Deal", with the construction managed by

Main Roads Western Australia Main Roads Western Australia (formerly the Main Roads Department) is a statutory authority of the Government of Western Australia that is responsible for implementing the state's policies on road access and main roads. It operates under the ''M ...

. Expressions of interest for the construction contract opened in February 2021. Two proponents were shortlisted in April 2021, and a consortium of

Civmec Civmec Limited is a cross-listed Australian-Singaporean public company involved in the construction, engineering and shipbuilding industries. Headquartered in Perth, Western Australia, it specialises in fabrication and construction for the oil a ...

Seymour Whyte Seymour may refer to: Places Australia *Seymour, Victoria, a township ** Seymour railway station * Electoral district of Seymour, a former electoral district in Victoria * Rural City of Seymour, a former local government area in Victoria * Se ...

and WSP was named preferred proponent in March 2022, with the total estimated cost at the time being $100M. The contract was awarded in April 2022. The

Town of Victoria Park The Town of Victoria Park is a local government area of Western Australia. It covers an area of 17.62 km² in metropolitan Perth, the capital of Western Australia. It had a population of approximately 35,000 as at the 2016 census. It li ...

approved the bridge in September 2022, with the south-eastern end of the bridge occupying McCallum Park, which is owned by the Town of Victoria Park. The bridge was approved by a Development Assessment Panel in December 2022. The first sod was turned in March 2023. Fabrication of the bridges' components was underway in

Henderson, Western Australia Henderson is a suburb of Perth, Western Australia, located within the City of Cockburn. History The suburb of Henderson, along with the suburb of Naval Base to its south, comprises land resumed by the Commonwealth Government in 1915 for defence ...

, by November 2023. In the same month, riverine construction began. An additional $80M cost was revealed in the May 2024 state budget, for water main upgrades, toilet blocks, and landscaping around the bridge. All major components of the bridges were in place by early August 2024, including all sixteen bridge modules and all pylons. It was also announced that the bridges were on track to open by the end of 2024. On 14 November 2024 it was announced that the bridges would open on 22 December 2024. The official name for the two bridges was also revealed as ''Boorloo Bridge'' (

), where is the

name for Perth.

Design

Lighting display

History

References

Further reading