Morell Bridge, 1901 - Engineering Heritage Marker Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
By Team MavEtJu on 08-Feb-16. Waypoint GA8119

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Type: Virtual
Container: Virtual
Coordinates: S37° 49.685' E144° 59.083' (WGS 84)
  55H 322642E 5811345N (UTM)
Elevation: 6 m
Local Government Area: Melbourne

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Description

Morell Bridge, 1901 - Engineering Heritage Marker

Formally known as the Anderson Street Bridge, the Morell bridge was originally conceived to address local residents’ desires for a bridge to allow vehicle movement and to improve the aesthetic quality of the banks along the Yarra River. Remarkably the bridge was constructed on dry land and once completed the river was diverted to flow underneath it. The main reason the river was diverted was to prevent and alleviate flooding upstream. The Morell Bridge spans 102 metres in length and is divided into three equal spans of Monier arch. The bridge has concrete abutments and piers at either end with the northern abutment built on piles through alluvial soils. The space between the arch and the roadway was filled and compacted with earth which was generally sourced from local areas.

The bridge is in original condition and is fitted with ornamental cast iron balustrades and Victorian lights. The spandrel walls are decorated with ornamental decorations including large dragons which are etched out with cement mortar and painted grey. The gutters on the bridge are cobbled bluestone, with a single 5.7 metre wide bitumen lane running down the centre.

The Monier method of construction is basically a system which utilises the good compressive nature of concrete and the tensile strength of the iron rods as reinforcement. This system of reinforcing concrete was created and patented in 1867 by a French garden ware manufacturer named Joseph Monier. Monier was fed-up with his clay and wooden planter boxes breaking all the time, and therefore came up with the reinforced concrete system. He started making his planter boxes out of concrete using a grid like system of small iron bars as the reinforcement. The design was continually developed and ended up covering a range of things including arch bridges which was later patented in 1875.

Later in the 19th century the Monier system finally reached Australian shores. The system of reinforced concrete for arch bridges was embraced by the engineering and contracting firm Carter, Gummow & Co who had acquired the New South Wales and Victorian patent rights. After a meeting with Frank Gummow of Carter, Gummow & Co, Joshua Anderson of the Monash and Anderson partnership negotiated an agreement for the firm to become the Victorian agents for the Monier patents. Furthermore Monash and Anderson also had involvement in many other bridges around the state; however the amount of involvement they had in the Morell Bridge is hard to decipher with the lack of evidence available.

Later, in 1936 the bridge was renamed the Morell Bridge after Sir Stephen Morell who was a prominent Victorian businessman and Lord Mayor of Melbourne between the years of 1926 and 1928.

Today the bridge is still in operation, used by cyclists and pedestrian traffic, connecting the Royal Botanic Gardens to the Olympic Park precinct.

 

When logging this virtual, please add a photo of yourself or your GPSr at the plaque.

For more information, please see the nomination PDF at the Heritage Register at the Engineers Australia website: https://www.engineersaustralia.org.au/portal/heritage/morell-bridge-1901.

Logs

04-Nov-22
Thanks for sharing this interesting location.
In 'town' for the night after dropping my daughter and her friend @ Rod Laver Arena for a concert. That left me with about 7 - 8 hours to explore the city, grabbing caches and photos. Geocaching - always a great way to explore areas. Lovin' life, coffees and caches, waymarks and photos letting my GPS be my guide. Dancing It's amazing to see the country in the eyes of a Geocacher and finding things that you may never have discovered if not for them. Not a fan of all the traffic so it's great to be here after the rush hour has died away.

Thanks for the cache Team MavEtJu. Appreciate you highlighting this area and bringing me here. Clapping
 
12-Dec-21
I stopped by this one at 13:30 while on today's walk from Hawthorn into the City for a nice quick find on this glorious day. Very Happy

With the pickie taken, it was time to catch the others. Wink

Thanks Team MavEtJu.
 
20-Jan-21
#GA5093 - 13:10; Out and about in Melbourne doing a tour of the Botanical Gardens with the geohoney. Noticed this one wasn't too far from us, so took a stroll across the road for the snap of the marker and the bridge. TFTC Team MavEtJu Very HappyClan Cerberus
 
24-Apr-18
Rode a bicycle across the bridge few times to my daughter's place nearby.
Thanks for bring me here and virtual cache.
Will put photo asap.
I'm a Laaaaaaaady, duh!
 
16-Feb-18
I travelled back home to SA from Perth for family reasons and decided that Melbourne is only a short hop from Adelaide, so I logged an attendance at the Parkville Mega event and headed over for 5 days in Melbourne. I hired an E bike and had it for 4 days so was able to get around to many places and grab lots of caches as well as biking from the Youth Hostel in North Melbourne to Parkeville which was only a short ride. I arrived Thursday arvo and headed into the cbd from North Melbourne for a quick look around and then back to the Hostel I was too early to pick up the bike so jumped on a tram and headed to the docklands and grabbed some caches in the area. I can not believe how much the CBD and docklands has changed since we were here about 5 years ago. From the docklands i headed along the river and out towards Richmond to grab some caches in the area there. This cache was a quick easy find and always great to see these heritage sites. Thanks for bringing me to this site and another great engineering achievment Team Mavetju. I am still playing catch up on all my logging from my visit to Melbourne. ClappingClan Minotaur
 
08-Jan-18
Discovered whilst exploring Melbourne after attending my first Geocaching Event and being instructed by n0w0rries on the different types of caches available to log.
Thanks for the opportunity to log this one.
 
29-Dec-17
Found this showery afternoon seeking caches to add to my tally for States of the Nation 2017-18.

TFTC Team MavEtJu.
 
14-May-17
While out supporting the Mothers Day Classic I stopped here for a photo.

I remember when I could drive over this bridge ducking around the CBD.

Not sure if that is a good memory or not, so long ago!!

TFTV Very Happy

 
27-Jan-17
A quick stop on my way home to get the required photo.
Thanks for the cache
 
14-Aug-16
17:14
Out in order to get the multi souvenir up for grabs this weekend, all other finds were a bonus.
The rest of the family disappeared for the afternoon, so I cast about for a venue for a good walk. Initially aiming to go down to the Grand Prix circuit, the traffic was horrendous once I reached Richmond, so I changed my mind and found a two hour parking spot, deciding to go on foot from there.
After a nice handful of smileys near the northern riverbank, I finally plucked up the courage to cross the great divide (not really, but it sounded good in my head). A lovely stroll through the Gardens past the back of Government House for another cache, then past the lake to the Morell Bridge, making the most of the remains of this sunny afternoon.
I was a bit worried about access when I saw how much of the river bank was fenced off at the moment... the blockage made it more challenging. Thankfully not impossible.
Back to the car, now it's getting dark... I want to finish with another multi, and I know where there's a night cache on the way home...

GCA#128
 
15-Jul-16
There are workmen doing some maintenance work on the lower path so the end of the path at the bridge here was fenced off and we couldn't quite get to the plaque. We did take a photo through the fence though.

TFTC Team MavEtJu
 
15-May-16
Found by caughtatwork at 16:33 on 15/05/2016
A quick walk past where we admired the bridge (I remember when you could drive across this one) and then were on our way. I drive past this cache every Friday home from work so it was nice to stop, admire the handiwork and grab the appropriate photo.
Took nothing, left nothing.
Thanks for this series of caches which are interesting and historical.
*Overall Experience: 4*
GAFF 1
 
16-Apr-16
Visiting the Royal Botanic Gardens for the Friends' Autumn Plant sale today - under a surprisingly hot sun and not the drizzling rain predicted - I made sure to detour on my way home and visit this marker. Smile
 
14-Feb-16
We have walked across this interesting bridge during some previous visits to Melbourne but had not appreciated its historical engineering significance until this cache was published. The required photo has been added to the Gallery. Thanks Laighside Legends for finding this engineering marker and thanks Team MavEtJu for this cache and the numerous others in this series.
 
08-Feb-16
Thanks to Laighside Legends for finding this one!