Macleay River Railway Bridge, Kempsey, New South Wales

The Macleay River railway bridge, also known as the Kempsey rail bridge over Macleay River, is a heritage-listed railway bridge that carries the North Coast railway across the Macleay River from Kempsey to South Kempsey, both in the Kempsey Shire. The bridge is owned by Transport Asset Holding Entity of New South Wales (TAHE), a state-owned corporation of the Government of New South Wales. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999.

The bridge was built in 1917 along with the extension of the North Coast line to Kempsey. The steelwork for the bridge was made at the Walsh Island Dockyard and Engineering Works and transported to the bridge site by steamer.The bridge is a steel Pratt truss bridge with consisting of three 61-metre steel spans and two 20-metre plate girder spans. It was built with steel approaches, with the pre-cast concrete approaches added later when the bridge was raised.



The Macleay River bridge is one of the major river crossings on the North Coast railway line. When opened in 1917, the crossing of the river was achieved by 3 61-metre steel truss spans, approached by timber trestles. After two floods in 1949 and in 1950, the steel trusses were raised approximately one metre and the approaches replaced by pre-stressed concrete spans.

The Kempsey rail bridge over the Macleay River was listed on the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999.