Near Lake George to the north of the Australian Capital Territory in the State of NSW is the sleepy little, nearly forgotten town of Collector. The Bushranger Hotel once known as the Commercial Hotel and before that as Kimberley’s Inn, in Collector is famous for it's colonial stone building, memorabilia,  publican and her association with the notorious bushranger Ben Hall (1837-1865)(bio here).

Even though I love the history of Collector and have had numerous beers at the local hotel over the years, it has always been a little out of my 'Limits of Location'. This morning I awoke to an e-mail asking for assistance in lobbying to save a local landmark in the nearby town of Collector in bordering New South Wales.

I went to the town and looked at the bridge and was left wondering, is the Collector Bridge just another ‘old’ structure well past it’s use by date? Or is it a small but integral piece of the Collector communities history?



(link)


I believe relegating the late 19th century wooden bridge to the scrapheap would result in yet another unrecoverable loss to the town’s heritage. The town has been bypassed by the Federal Highway and the area should retain any assets that maintain the character and warmth of the village.

When there are no more aesthetically sympathetic (and functional) structures left and we are only surrounded by steel bar reinforced, concrete aggregate architecture I think we may look back and see the economy of the refurbishment as short sighted.

 
---------------- The e-mail.











Please forward this email to everyone!

Collector needs your help - the historic timber Collector Creek Bridge, NSW, is being demolished! 

This is wanton destruction of an important Australian historical bridge which was built in the 1880's. The Collector Bridge is on the old Federal Highway to Canberra and is part of the route that was used by pioneers to Southern New South Wales from the 1830's. In addition it is adjacent to the site where Governor Macquarie (1762-1824)(bio here) named Lake George in October 1820.

Upper Lachlan Shire Council wishes to destroy this bridge within the next month (maybe even as soon as this week!) without having any heritage assessment made. We consider this to be an act of vandalism against the heritage of the town but also of the State of New South Wales.

Please sign the petition to Save Collector Creek Bridge - it only takes a minute! Go to the petition page here

For more information and photos of the Collector Creek Bridge,
visit the Collector Voice website




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I have signed the petition and distributed the e-mail to my contacts.

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09/6/2010
Collector Historical Society letter to Councilors (word doc here)
10/6/2010 
Helen Stephens, Collector resident's letter (word doc here)
Public meeting at the  bridge - Sunday, 20th June at 1PM (details here)
Council meeting where all objections were rejected.
18/6/2010
The bridge is closed.
Notification that the deck of the bridge will be removed on Monday 21/6.
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Here are some photos.























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And the Monument to Constable Samuel Nelson.





























The post he hid behind when he was shot?






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