– G’day, James Sutton here. Today, I’m going to talk about how crossing Middle Harbour has evolved over the years. Back in the mid-1800s, a commercial rowing boat ferry was running across Middle Harbour to take people to Davidson Park. This continued to run through the narrowest section of the crossing for several decades. By the 1920s, it was operated by Charlie and Joe Smith who charged twopence for a crossing. Apparently, if you were on the opposite side of the crossing, you would shout “coooeeee” and one of the brothers would row the boat across to you and bring you back to the other side. In case of emergencies, a rowing boat was left on each side of the river at night. After the First World War, returning soldiers were awarded blocks of land in Frenchs Forest that increased the demand to cross Middle Harbour, and eventually led to the building of the original Roseville Bridge.

This was jointly financed by three councils being Willoughby, Ku-ring-gai, and Warringah, as well as 50% of that funding coming from the New South Wales government. The original bridge was built over several years by the unemployed servicemen, and was opened in 1924. It had five concrete piers, each 40 feet apart, and two lanes. It was used mainly by pedestrians and the small number of cars in the area at that stage. It connected Babbage Road and Healey Way, which is the entrance to Davidson Park. At the same time, the original Roseville Baths were built on the waterfront. And in 1933, the baths were rebuilt to be the current Olympic size. An eight foot wide decked platform surrounded the pool on three sides and a 20 foot high diving tower was built along with changing rooms and a tea room. The rapid urbanisation from Manly to Palm Beach caused a large spike in car traffic over the bridge. And by the 1950s, a replacement had been planned. It was built in 1966 at a cost of $4.4 million. It’s 377 metres in length, and it rises 17.4 metres above Middle Harbour.

You can see it over my shoulder here. It was immediately used by around 20,000 cars per day, and that figure is now believed to be well over 70,000 per day. The old Roseville Bridge continued to be used as pedestrian bridge until it and the baths were demolished in 1974. Babbage Road went from being a very busy thoroughfare to a fairly quiet road. Back to modern day and according to the records, the current median for five bedroom house in Roseville is $4,064,000 at 27.5% increase on last year. My name’s James Sutton, and I really hope you enjoyed the story of the Roseville Bridge and Roseville Baths. I’ll continue digging out lots more stories about the Roseville area in the coming weeks and months, so stay tuned. If you’d like to discuss your property, feel free to drop in and visit me at the McGrath North Shore office located at 280 Pacific Highway in Lindfield or call anytime on the mobile. My number is 0422-704-370. Bye for now.