3 of the Best… Bridges in Australia

I am honoured to have been invited by PerelinColors to write a monthly feature about some of my favourite things here in Australia. PerelinColors is a couple who share with us amazing stories, photos and advice about their travels. We met via Photo101 back in November 2014 when we discovered that we use cameras from the same family. There is a nice little community of Olympus-mirrorless-camera lovers here on WordPress 🙂

So, onto the feature. We want to show you a small part of my country and thought that a good way to do that would be to choose 3 things each month based on a single theme. This month, it’s bridges. Some of you already know of my love of bridges, I am fascinated by their structure and I love seeing them lit up at night. I think part of their beauty comes from the water that they are built over. The water proves such intricate and gorgeous reflection of the structure and the colour and lights.

These are three of my favourite bridges in Australia. They are the ones that I’ve had a chance to photograph and I’m sharing with you some of the spots from which you can get photos like these.

The first bridge, has to be the Sydney Harbour Bridge – the most famous bridge in Australia. Officially opened in 1932, it is the world’s largest steel arch bridge – the top is 134m above the water. The shape of the bridge leads locals to call it “the coat hanger”. About 180,000 vehicles cross the bridge daily! There is also a tunnel built under the bridge, which carries some 90,000 vehicles per day. Whenever I go to Sydney, I use the tunnel quite regularly, but I’m always excited when my GPS takes me over the bridge instead 🙂

The photo below which shows the entire bridge (captioned Sydney Opera House) was taken from a spot called Mrs Macquarie’s Chair. I’d like to go back to this spot as it was quite overcast when I was there. I like the dark clouds in the photo, but I’d love to go back when there are blue skies and also I’d like to go back at night to get the lights of the city at either end of the bridge.

The other three photos are from the coolest spot ever – Larkin Street Lookout. As you drive up to the top, it feels like the wrong place because it’s a street of houses. But right at the top, on the left is a little strip of carparks – you can even see the view from your car. The lookout is a large wooden deck surrounded by big flat rocks that you can also stand on. You can’t see Darling Harbour from here but it gives you a great view of the city skyline and the bridge and you can even see a glimpse of the Sydney Opera House under the bridge. I really loved this spot and spent a couple of hours there in the rain and lightning to get these shots.

 

Sydney Opera House.

Sydney Harbour.

Harbour Bridge.

Lightning Glow.

You can see more of my photos of this bridge and Sydney Harbour here. And you can visit the official Sydney Harbour Bridge website here for more information about it’s construction and history. It’s quite fascinating.

 

Next up is the bridge from my hometown – Brisbane Story Bridge. Officially opened in 1940, it is a heritage-listed steel cantilever bridge that carries about 97,000 vehicles each day. Interestingly, the bridge has only one pier on the northern bank and two on the lower southern bank – one is to bear the weight of the bridge and the other is to stop it from twisting. I love this bridge, it is home to me.

The photos from under the bridge were taken from the southern pier at Captain Burke Park. It’s quite cool to see the structure underneath the bridge and it’s just down the road from the Story Bridge Hotel where you can get the true Aussie Pub experience.

The photos captioned “From the City Cat” and “City Cat Flag” were taken from a City Cat 🙂 The City Cats are the ferries that take people up and down the Brisbane River. I took these photos from the ferry one evening when we were coming home from a day out.

The other photos were taken from a spot that I found by accident – the New Farm Riverwalk. I was desperate to get photos of my bridge but had no idea where to go. I drove across the bridge from south to north and then circled around and couldn’t find a spot. I was getting very frustrated but just as I was about to head back over the bridge and look for another spot, I saw a tiny road leading off the bridge just before the bridge started. And boy was I rewarded with an amazing place! I found a spot to park my car, walked back up the hill and literally stopped in my tracks when I saw how close I was to the bridge and how expansive the view was. I stayed there for a few hours as well, watching the bridge light up as evening fell. It was fantastic.

Story Bridge Lights.

Under the Bridge.

Bridge at Dusk.

Vintage Bridge.

From the City Cat.

Right Under the Bridge.

City Cat Flag.

I’ve also written about this bridge before and you can see many more of my photos of this bridge here and you can read more about it on this wiki page.

 

Finally, another bridge in Sydney – ANZAC Bridge. It is an 8-lane cable-stayed bridge and is quite new, opened in 1995. The reinforced concrete pylons that hold up the cables are 120m high. It is named the ANZAC Bridge as a memorial to the soldiers of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps who served in World War I. There is both an Australian flag and a New Zealand flag flying from this bridge, as well as two statues of an Australian soldier and a New Zealand soldier. This year marked 100 years since the landing of the ANZAC troops at Gallipoli and thousands of Australians and New Zealanders visited the site for the memorial service. This service is also carried out across the two countries as a dawn service.

I took these photos from Bicentennial Park. It was quite late in the evening – I just love the colours from the city reflecting in the water. It really is a fabulous bridge.

ANZAC Bridge.

ANZAC Bridge.

You can read more about this glorious bridge at this wiki page.

There are many more beautiful bridges in Australia, especially some in Melbourne that I’m hoping to be able to photograph soon. If you would like to share with us your favourite bridge, please do so, link back to this post and tag it with #3ofthebest

x desleyjane