#20 Cottesloe Central Bridge

Part of a series of posts by Neil Cownie on The Future of Swanbourne Village

In researching bridges in the vicinity of Swanbourne Village, I came across the book ‘Heritage of Pines: a history of the town of Cottesloe Western Australia’ written by Ruth Marchant James and illustrated by my father, Stewart Cownie, published in 1977. My father often produced ‘retrospective’ works depicting a scene from the past following his investigations of written and photographic history. In the drawing you can see a timber framed bridge spanning the railway line through central Cottesloe. In this drawing’ this bridge looks to be quite similar to the bridge that previously existed in Maylands.

The written history from the Town of Cottesloe website describes ‘Cottesloe Central’ as once being ‘the hub of community social and cultural life’.