Dornoch Terrace Bridge is a heritage-listed road bridge at Dornoch Terrace, West End, Queensland, Australia. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 1 October 2007.
History
The Dornoch Terrace Bridge was built in 1941 by the Brisbane City Council. It provides a vehicular and pedestrian thoroughfare down Dornoch Terrace towards the Brisbane River. Built as an overpass across Boundary Street, the bridge allows access to the road below by a series of staircases and a slip road.
The Bridge is a prominent landmark in the West End and Highgate Hill area and reflects the period when Boundary Street was regraded as part of an ambitious scheme to connect West End to the new University of Queensland campus at St Lucia. The excavations are supported by concrete retaining walls, faced in fine stonework, creating dramatic approaches to the bridge and incorporating connecting staircases and a slip road between the two streets. The Dornoch Terrace Bridge and associated retaining walls survive as the only visible evidence of this ambitious scheme.
Highgate Hill was first settled by Europeans in 1856. The first European settler in this area was Mr. Trimble, an officer at the Customs House. He was followed by many new settlers, including the Wilson family, famed for naming the area "Highgate Hill". Prior to European settlement of this area there was a track along the present Dornoch Terrace through to the present Gladstone Road and through to Annerley. In the mid 1800s Dornoch Terrace was known as "The Broad Road", and ran atop the area we now know as Highgate Hill.
Initially a farming area, by 1889, the area around Dornoch Terrace became increasingly built up and populated. A reservoir was built on the corner of Dornoch Terrace and Gladstone Road to service the growing population. Not long after this much of the land surrounding Dornoch Terrace was subdivided into various estates.
The increase in urban population in the Highgate Hill area can be partly attributed to the rapid growth of industry in the West End area, especially along the river. Initially the main industry in this area was timber. Once the area had been cleared of timber, factories were subsequently constructed in the late 1800s and early 1900s, many along the river and on Montague Road (well below the high hill of Dornoch Terrace). A variety of industries were established and included a gas works (West End Gasworks and Gas Stripping Tower), a concrete pipes works, a soft drink factory, a boot factory, glass works and an ice-cream plant.
The introduction of a public transport system to service the Highgate Hill area began with the Soden omnibus service in 1878. This ran from the city centre, across the river and up to Dornoch Terrace, from there it would travel to Ipswich Road. Electric trams were introduced to Brisbane in the early 1900s, and by 1908 Highgate Hill could be reached by this service. The electric trams travelled all the way up Hardgrave Road and down to the Hill End ferry. There was also a tram service that travelled up Boundary Street, this however, ceased well below the summit of Dornoch Terrace. The bridge was never used for trams. Tram services ceased in 1969.
Several large houses were built along Dornoch Terrace at this time, including "Torbreck" (now the apartment building Torbreck) and Kinauld, designed by architect Alexander Brown Wilson and built in 1888. The building of these prestigious houses signifies the growth and increased wealth of the Highgate Hill area, in particularly along Dornoch Terrace.
There were two prior bridges known to span Boundary Street. A map of 1895 reveals that an "over bridge" was in existence and in December 1888, the South Brisbane Municipal Council approved a tender by the firm of Walters and Cooper to construct a bridge at this intersection. This late 1880s bridge existed until the current bridge replaced it in 1941. This earlier bridge was known to locals as the "Black Bridge" due to wet tar falling from wagons carrying felled timber. The ends of the timber were washed with tar, and on the journey across the bridge the tar would drip onto the road and subsequently be splashed onto the bridge railings.
In 1909 the University of Queensland was formed, and was initially accommodated in Old Government House at Gardens Point. However, in 1926, Dr James O'Neil Mayne and Miss Mary Emelia Mayne donated to the Brisbane City Council to resume land at St Lucia and this was to become the new site of the University.