Hornibrook Highway 85th Anniversary Presentation Notes

Slide 1: In October Moreton Bay Region Libraries celebrated the 85th anniversary of the opening of the Hornibrook Highway.

Slide 2: Technically a viaduct in engineering parlance, the toll bridge/highway, was opened in 4th October 1935. It was immensely important to the Moreton Bay community, linking at Brighton with the . It made for a much shorter and easier journey and lead to an increase in growth in Redcliffe but as a result there was an associated decline in the steamship business between Redcliffe and Brisbane.

The Hornibrook Highway was designed and built by Sir Manuel Hornibrook of William Jolly Bridge fame with a 40 year lease on the road bridge. Toll cost for vehicles started at 1 shilling, with 6 pence for motorbikes and 3 pence for pedestrians and pushbikes.

At 2.8 km it was the longest bridge in . After 40 years of operation, in 1975 the franchise was given to the Department of Main Roads but when the new duplicate bridge, the Houghton Highway was opened in 1979, upgrading the Hornibrook Highway was found to be uneconomic and it was closed to vehicular traffic - becoming the longest footbridge in the world until it closed in 2010 with the opening of a third bridge - Ted Smout Memorial Bridge. It was demolished in 2011.

Slide 3: The Hornibrook Highway collection is made up of photographs - video footage including a DVD produced in conjunction with the former Redcliffe City Council of the construction and demolition of the bridge and news reel footage of the opening - ephemera, including toll tickets, souvenirs from the opening ball, a piece of the opening ribbon, as well as documents such as plans, deeds, rosters from the construction and running of the bridge. We also have monographs in the collection about the bridge. Redcliffe Museum holds items in its collection as well such as souvenir china, a model of the bridge, and a toll collector’s uniform.

Slide 4 & 5: We worked in conjunction with the Redcliffe library team to create a display for the month of October of items from the collection, borrowing some pieces from the Museum. We had footage from Beyond the Bridge DVD playing on a screen.

We then lent some items from our collection to the Museum who hosted a talk with Julie Hornibrook, Manuel Hornibrook’s granddaughter. And the collection also featured on the news with the Mayor talking about the anniversary, and we had a feature on our Facebook page.

White Gloves: Local Studies Officer Kelly Ashford

Due to covid, we ran 4 sessions from 9am to 11am. Maximum 2 people per 20 minute sessions. Customers had to book and register their arrival on entering the library. We had sanitiser and white gloves, they got to keep the gloves. Some things we let them look at were the work rosters, the actual contract between Redcliffe City Council and Sir Manuel Hornibrook and the deeds. Financial statements, old newspaper cuttings, plans, photos and books.

Slide 6: Challenges - • return to displays and in person programming after COVID-19 restrictions and all the issues that come with it. • Timing not great for a local history event with school holidays as well as COVID.

Successes - • quick turnaround to get it up and going from an enquiry about the anniversary to go. • Fantastic collaboration with branch staff, museum, media team • Community engagement - customers who did come into the library engaged by the display eg pulling up chairs to watch the video.

Helen Cossins and Kelly Ashford Moreton Bay Libraries, Local Studies