| Bridge Name: | Shelford bridge |
| Locale: | Shelford, Victoria, Australia |
| Coordinates: | -38.014°N 143.9771°W |
| Carries: | [C143] Shelford-Bannockburn Road |
| Crosses: | Leigh River (Victoria) |
| Open: | 1874 |
| Design: | Wrought Iron box girder |
| Mainspan: | 19m (62feet)[1] |
| Length: | 60m (200feet) |
| Width: | 14.3m (46.9feet) |
The Shelford Bridge is an important early wrought iron box girder road bridge built in 1873-4 over the River Leigh and designed by Charles Anthony Corbett Wilson (1827–1923) on the main road from Melbourne to Portland in Victoria, Australia.[2]
The crossing of the Leigh (or Yarrowee) River may lay claim to the first bridge built in Victoria, when a timber structure was erected in 1840. This was replaced in 1851 with a more substantial bridge on bluestone abutments and piers, and in turn the present iron bridge.[3]
The bridge stands on bluestone abutments and piers and has two half-through, wrought iron, box girders continuous over three spans, supporting a riveted wrought iron frame deck. Ironwork was imported from Liverpool via Geelong on the ship British Empire.[4]
The spans sit on roller bearings and the ironwork was fabricated on site from components made by the Ballarat ironworks of John Price. It is one of only a handful of bridges of this type in Australia, although there are a number of important European examples such as Brunel's Britannia Bridge.[5]
The 1874 bridge replaced an earlier structure from 1851, which evidently reused the bluestone abutments. CAC Wilson was responsible for a number of early bridges in the Leigh and surrounding shires in his 64 years of practice (1846-1910).[6]
The bridge is included on the Victorian Heritage Register, and was saved from demolition when local Country Roads Board engineer Peter Alsop convinced his superiors that a new bridge on a better road alignment was a preferable solution.[7]