Road bridge over the Fitzroy

The main road link with the north, this bridge was designed and built in England for use in India during the last century but an alteration of the plan diverted it to Australia where it was erected over the Fitzroy River. Even the ornate facade of the nearby Criterion Hotel suggest in its design a period long since outgrown. Strange also was the volume of modern war traffic - the jeeps and ten-wheeled trucks and smart staff cars of the U.S Army crowding this un-Australian setting. Rockhampton's population of 30,000 was trebled during the war and became Army Training Headquarters of the United States Land Forces in Australia.