Denison Canal and the road Swing Bridge.

Last week i stayed for a night in the town of Dunalley in the south east of Tasmania. Upon driving through the town one comes to a bridge that crosses over the Denison Canal. The interesting thing about this bridge is that it is a swing bridge. By swinging the bridge to one side of the canal it alows the travel of boats etc to pass through. There are not many swing bridges in Australia so it was great be able to drive over one. Unfortunately there were no boats coming through when i was there.

The current swing bridge

This is the only purpose built sea canal in Australia to be constructed. The canal construction started in 1902 and was opened in 1905 with a length of 895 metres. The purpose for it's consruction was to shorten the fishing and trade routes between the east coast of Tasmania and Hobart. The Denison canal and the swing bridge are still in use today altough the original bridge was replaced in 1965. The canal can be used between the hours 8am-5pm daily.

Walking path and picnic table beside the canal looking across to the town.

Hope you liked this little bit of history about the Denison canal.