Highlights

The Richmond Bridge can lay claim to being the oldest existing stone arch bridge in Australia. It was originally named Bigge’s Bridge after the Royal Commissioner John Thomas Bigge who proposed the erection of the Bridge in 1820.

Bigge recognised the need to improve transportation of convicts and early settlers from Hobart Town to other regions of Tasmania such as the east coast and as far down the Tasman Peninsula as the Port Arthur penal settlement. Traffic to all these areas passed through Richmond; there was no Midway Point or Sorell causeway at the time.

The two years of construction commenced in 1823. It was built by convict labour (prisoners from the nearby Richmond Gaol), a common trend at the time for developing major building and roads. These convicts were forced to perform the gruelling task of mining the sandstone from the nearby Butchers Hill and then transport it to the site using carts.

The craftsmanship was brilliant – with only minimal maintenance, the bridge has stood for close to 200 years. Constructed with wheat carts in mind, it’s still in use today, supporting automobiles and buses of far greater weight.

Activities

• Sight-seeing
• Photography