Might be more than a slight case of 'artistic licence' here, with this exaggeration of the Wentworth Mounds behind our early town.
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These hills, part of the Peel Range, are named in honour of the great Australian William Charles Wentworth, who held a licence to departure stock locally, but doesn't appear to have taken advantage of this around Tamworth.
This artwork would have been undertaken from around today's Riverside 1 cricket oval, looking towards our first wheeled-traffic bridge, a wooden structure, sometimes referred to as the 'Dray Bridge'.
Dating from 1861, this was located just upstream from our present Peel River traffic bridge.
Tenders were opened in 1859 to construct the bridge, eventually taken up by W.Chowne for a contract price of 3300 pounds.
A fatality occurred during construction, when workman William Cooper died of spinal injuries caused by a swinging upright.
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The bridge was completed on March 23,1861, but unfortunately with no provision for approaches or footpaths.
The structure was 40m long, 4.6m wide, with a 9.2m decking height above water level.
The 1864 and 1874 floods both washed away the Northern approaches.
By the early 1880's the bridge had become quite unsafe for heavily laden wagons, due to rotting timber, leading to the Department of Roads & Bridges making a decision to replace it with an Iron Bridge a little downstream, which served Tamworth for many years, until the opening of the present bridge in 1965.
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Photo and caption submitted by Mike Cashman, Tamworth Historical Society. If you have similar photos you'd be willing to donate or have them copied, contact 0407 789 894.