Wrought iron trusses stretched

between Hunters Hill and Linley Point,

          the bridge took an hour to open,

four men to work the gearwheel system.

Time slowed, was somewhere else

in the tree-shaded riverscape.

You could fish there, know the tides.

Fig Tree Farm, granted to Mary Reiby

          purchased by Didier Joubert

becomes the site of Fig Tree Tea House

under the replacement bridge,

the old wheel operating the opening span

          stands memorial on the western bank

below the tangle of traffic.

Driving home, across steel and concrete

on lazy summer afternoons

          you catch glimpses of the river.

- after Fig Tree Bridge, Lane Cove, 1940s, Herbert Reginald Gallop

© Margaret Bradstock