West Gate Bridge collapse: 50 years on from Australia’s worst industrial disaster
Thirty-five men lost their lives when Melbourne’s partially built West Gate Bridge crashed to the ground. Fifty years on, an Essendon man has found a fitting way to mark the tragedy.
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Fifty years ago this month Melbourne’s West Gate Bridge collapsed in a pile of screeching metal and broken bodies.
Thirty-five men lost their lives on October 15, 1970, in what is to date one of Australia’s worst industrial disasters.
Steve Campbell, a builder from Essendon, said he was only three years old when structural faults caused a 120 metre section of the partially built bridge crashed to the ground.
Five decades on he said the significance of what happened still resounded strongly within the community, so he’d decided to build a sculpture using two pieces of the old bridge salvaged by his father-in-law to commemorate the event.
“My interest in the West Gate extends back from when I was a little kid. I remember when it collapsed, the news bulletin,” Mr Campbell said.
“I’ve done quite a bit of reading on it and I read up why it collapsed
“Particularly with the 50th anniversary I think it’s important it’s remembered.”
Mr Campbell, a builder by trade, worked with award-winning architect Nonda Katsalidis to design his sculpture.
Now he said it sits proudly at home, but Mr Campbell said it could one day find its way into a museum if one was willing to take it.
The twisted bits of metal are beautiful but also terrifying to behold, he said.
“It gives you an idea the stress these pieces were under before it collapsed,” Mr Campbell said.
“It would have been horrendous, you just can’t imagine what it would have been like.”
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