The Moorabool River is a river in

Victoria, Australia Victoria, commonly abbreviated as Vic, is a state in southeastern Australia. It is the second-smallest state (after Tasmania), with a land area of ; the second-most-populated state (after New South Wales), with a population of over 7 million; ...

, which runs for 160 kilometres through several small towns such as Meredith, Anakie, and Staughton Vale. It runs into the Barwon River at Fyansford. It is believed that the name Moorabool derives from an Aboriginal word meaning the cry of a

curlew The curlews () are a group of nine species of birds in the genus ''Numenius'', characterised by their long, slender, downcurved bills and mottled brown plumage. The English name is imitative of the Eurasian curlew's call, but may have been infl ...

or a ghost.

Bridges

The river features several historic bridges, many built of

bluestone Bluestone is a cultural or commercial name for a number of natural dimension stone, dimension or building stone varieties, including: * basalt in Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, and in New Zealand * diabase, dolerites in Tasmania, ...

in the 19th century.

Batesford Bridge

Batesford was originally the site of a ford crossing the Moorabool River. The first bridge was built by the Corio and Bannockburn shire councils in 1846. Provided with a tollgate, the wooden bridge was located upstream from the ford, but collapsed in 1847. Rebuilt in wood in 1848, it was damaged by flood in 1852 and later repaired. A bluestone bridge was built in 1859, which still exists today as a service road. The current concrete bridge on the Midland Highway was built on a new alignment in 1972.John, McNeil (1990) ''A Journey to Destiny 1890-1990 100 Years of Cement Manufacturing at Fyansford by Australian Cement Limited''

Fyansford Bridge

The first river crossing at Fyansford was again a ford. The first wooden bridge was built by the Shire of Corio and Shire of Bannockburn in 1854, down river from the ford, and was tolled until 1877. It was in poor condition by 1898, with load restrictions being put into place. A new bridge was built nearby in 1900 by

John Monash General (Australia), General Sir John Monash (; 27 June 1865 – 8 October 1931) was an Australian civil engineer and military commander of the World War I, First World War. He commanded the 13th Brigade (Australia), 13th Infantry Brigade befor ...

and J. T. N. Anderson, the three-arch bridge being the largest Monier reinforced concrete bridge in world at the time. In 1970, a new bridge was built on the site of the old wooden bridge to cater for heavier traffic on the Hamilton Highway, with the 1900 bridge being retained for pedestrians.

Geelong Ring Road

Work on the Geelong Ring Road bridge over the Moorabool River commenced in late 2006. Costing $15.5 million, it carries four lanes of traffic and is the largest bridge on the road, with 70 beams and 12 piers. The final span was installed on 6 March 2008. It has been named the Lewis Bandt Bridge.

Moorabool Viaduct

The -long

and iron Moorabool Viaduct was opened in 1862 to carry the Geelong-Ballarat railway over the river valley. It remains in use today, having been reinforced with extra steel piers in 1918, to a design of

Victorian Railways The Victorian Railways (VR), trading from 1974 as VicRail, was the state-owned operator of most rail transport in the Australian state of Victoria from 1859 to 1983. The first railways in Victoria were private companies, but when these companie ...

engineer Frederick Esling.

References

External links

* *
Moorabool River at BIRD
(wiki)
People for A Living Moorabool
{{Authority control Corangamite catchment Rivers of Barwon South West (region) Rivers of Grampians (region) Geography of Geelong