Hay Bridge celebrates 50 years

George Gee and Mayor Oataway cutting the 50th anniversary cake. Image: The Riverine Grazier / Margie McClelland.

By Krista Schade - August 2, 2023

The community of Hay gathered at Bushy Bend Reserve on Thursday morning, as guests of Hay Shire Council, to celebrate the golden jubilee of the second Hay Bridge.

Mayor Carol Oataway welcomed guests and gave a brief history of the bridge, opened in 1973, at a cost of $890,000.

“As a matter of perspective, the Maude bridge was recently constructed at a total cost of $8 million,” she said.

Special guests included Joanne Cheshire and Jo Parrott from Transport NSW, who are the official owners of the bridge. George Gee was also noted as a special guest, as one of the two remaining members of the bridge’s construction crew. He and former Hay resident John Redenbach are the last surviving crew members.

Mr Gee had the honour of cutting the 50th anniversary cake, with Mayor Oataway. Mayor Oataway recalled the opening of the bridge.

“As an 11-year-old on the eighth of June 1973, I took part in a moment of Hay’s history, when the students and the community walked over the old bridge and then crossed back over the new bridge. It symbolised the old saying of ‘out with the old and in with the new’.”

St Mary's captain's Usher Stringer, Samar Patel and Frederick Nelson shared poems about the bridge, which will be published in next week’s Grazier. Hay Public School Captains Rachel Taylor, Harry Houston, Lily Books and Noa Koroi and Hay War Memorial High School captain Michael Tumolero gave speeches on the history of the bridge and its impact on the township.

“The significance of this bridge is that it marked the turning point for Hay,” Michael said. “It marked a point in time where Hay went into a more modern period.

“This bridge had a large impact on our community and kept it going by bringing economic opportunities to local businesses through tourism.”

Paul Edwards supplied The Riverine Grazier with a list of those who completed the earthworks on the bridge approach. Kevin Cox and Ron Blinksill drove scrapers, while Rod Martin operated the pulvi mixer and Merv Hanrahan and Frank Woods drove rollers. Doug Callister and George Andrews drove graders whilst Paul was a loader operator.