Plaques Link Past to Present

John Greenwood Barnes was Cremorne's first settler and you can read all about him the next time you take a stroll along the Forgan Bridge.

Yesterday afternoon a series of historical plaques was unveiled as part of the newly completed $148 million river crossing. The six historical plaques, placed on three of the viewing platforms along the bridge, were written and researched by Mackay historians Terry Hayes, Berenice Wright and Glen Hall.

There to unveil the plaques was Member for Mackay Tim Mulherin and Main Roads regional director Ian Husband. "The boards show the history of the eastern end of the Pioneer River and the surrounding wharf precinct," Mr Mulherin said. "The Pioneer River and the area surrounding the new Forgan Bridge have played an important role in the history of Mackay. "While we celebrate the new Forgan Bridge, it's also vital to ensure there is a lasting memento of the old bridges and other historically important events to share and preserve our history for future generations."

Mrs Wright and Mr Hayes said they spent several weeks collecting the history from many sources before writing each of the stories on the plaques. "As historians we were very honoured to be asked to be a part of this," Mrs Wright said. "We had to edit a lot of the information; I wrote a lot of it out onto A4 pages and had to cut it back to around 150 words."

The first plaques feature the stories of Cremorne, which includes details of John Greenwood Barnes and his establishment of the Cremorne Gardens in 1867, and the wreck of the Brinawarr, which lies under the Forgan Bridge and is a valued relic of Mackay's early shipping history. The next recalls the wharfage on the Pioneer River in the 1860s and the floods that have been a defining influence of the flow of the Pioneer River.

The other two detail the old Forgan Bridge, including when it was officially opened in 1938 by William Forgan Smith, Premier of Queensland and Member for Mackay, and the Sydney Street Bridge, recounting its completion and associated works in 1889, which provided a long-awaited link between the township of Mackay and the near-northern side of the Pioneer River.