OVERVIEW

Vying with the Hawthorn bridge in antiquity was the old Studley Park Bridge, connecting Church street, Richmond, with Studley Park. Built by a private company, and opened on June 6, 1857, it was operated on the toll principle.

 

"The Studley Park Bridge is a great convenience to the northern Boroondara residents," says an old report - "It saves them a mile into town"

 

It ran into Simpson's road (now Victoria street) at Church street.

 

The length of the bridge from bank to bank was 485 ft., but the span over the Yarra was only 125ft.

 

It was popularly known as the “Penny Bridge” due to the need for travellers to pay a one penny toll for eaxch foot passenger, which was collected at a Toll House next to the start of Studley Bridge Rd. with a scale of charges for vehicles, and for years the tolls were collected by a man named Halfpenny. The toll was abandoned by the late 1870. Owing to floods the bridge became unsafe. the bridge was closed in 1899, dismantled and sold for firewood in 1903.

 

At one time an ldiot from a bank hold-up at the Richmond branch of the National Bank was smuggled across the bndge in a dray, but police recovered some of the money in Studley Park.

 

Most of Studley Bridge Rd no longer exists, buried under the Studley Park Golf Course  - a section of it between Walmer St and Studley Park Rd became present day Nolan Avenue in the early 1900s.