A home above the road above a river

 A home with a view. Imagine living inside the pylons of a bridge.

That’s just what the toll-keeper and his family did in the north pylon of the Walter Taylor bridge crossing the Brisbane River from Chelmer to Indooroopilly. Up until fairly recently, descendants of the original toll-keeper still lived there.

The bridge is the longest span suspension bridge in Australia (299.7m in total with the longest span 182.9m) and is the only habitable bridge in the Southern Hemisphere. Opened on Valentine’s Day 1936, the bridge gave ready access (for a fee) over the river, which until then had been only permissible by ferry.

Originally called the Indooroopilly Toll Bridge it was renamed in 1956 and bestowed the name of its designer and builder, WalterTaylor.

We went on a walking tour with Brisbane Greeters and learnt a few other things about the area as we walked. Did you know there were Japanese soldiers interred on the banks of the river between the rail bridge and Indooroopilly station ? Have you ever noticed the flood indicator plaques on the base of the pylon as you drive under the southern end of the bridge ? That is an awful lot of water !

The support cables were surplus support cables used to support the incomplete halves of the Sydney Harbour Bridge during its construction. The toll was about 6d or 5c until it was abolished in the 1960’s. Proceeds from the toll were used to repay investor loans which had enabled Walter Taylor to construct the bridge.

Living conditions inside seem quite rudimentary by today’s standards, but photos from when occupied by the toll-keeper and his family show a fairly normal family home; albeit it over three or four levels above the roadway.

Walter Taylor himself was involved in the construction of many building around Brisbane, but he was also a visionary planning and proposing many ventures. Some of these were never built in his life time, but a few have been constructed in the ensuing years including a tunnel under the river ! Two of the projects completed in his lifetime, the bridge and the Graceville Methodist Church are both heritage listed. The fine homes he constructed for his family also in Graceville are still outstanding today.

If you get the chance it is very interesting to hear about the construction, family and history of the area. The stairs are quite steep and it is definitely not pram or small children friendly, it also involves walking about 2km from the starting point and return.