A mysterious disappearing shipwreck remains hidden in this city to this very day. The mystery began with the old Harlin-Road Brassall Bridge in Ipswich, Queensland, that was built back in 1919. I told a version of this story on West Bremer Radio.

It was called the Harlin Road Bridge back then and was paid for by both the Ipswich City and Brassall Shire councils, with support from the state government, but also thanks to private subscriptions of £700 from the people of Brassall themselves.

The construction was overseen by the Ipswich city engineer Frank Griffiths who would be in the job for twenty-seven years. This was one of his first big projects.

The firm chosen to do the work was the Taylor Brothers contractors. They did big contracts right across the state. They built bridges at Charleville and Longreach, Urangan pier at Maryborough, Woody Point and Redcliffe (pictured above) jetties, Brett’s and Dalgety’s wharves in Brisbane, and more.

One of their partners was Arthur McLean, he wasn’t one of the Taylor Brothers but rather a brother-in-law. He was licensee of the Royal George Hotel at Marburg, and his son was awarded a Military Cross and an M.B.E. in the First World War.

Another partner was Edward Taylor whose nephew was Gerald Nolan. He was the Rosewood chemist who moved to Ipswich and gave Nolan’s Corner its name. It’s the corner of Brisbane and Nicholas Streets, across from St Paul’s Church of England.

Taylor Brothers had a motor launch and barge that had been used to haul timber from Fraser Island to the mainland. In 1916, they brought them up the Bremer River to Ipswich to work on the Harlin Road Bridge. When it was finished, the launch was moored in the river above the railway bridge and near the bend in the river.

There was some criticism of the bridge – it was too low and too narrow, and it was even built in the wrong place. Despite the bridge taking the name of Harlin Road, it actually joins Kingsmill Road with Hunter Street.

The map of the Brassall Bridge Estate subdivision at the time probably explains why the bridge was not built where it was originally conceived by locals. By extending Harlin Road, it would have gone straight through the home of the Queensland attorney general, Sir James Blair.

Another strange thing involved the “Harlin Road Brassall Bridge League”. That was the committee of local residents who raised the £700 to help pay for the bridge. But one of the leading proponents didn’t live long enough to see his bridge because he died just before it was finished. Ironically, he was “A. Deadman”. That was his name, Albert Deadman.

And strangely the bridge was never officially opened. Ipswich City Council was happy for an opening, but the council on the other end of the bridge, which was by then was the Moreton Shire Council, didn’t want to pay for its share. The opening never happened.

The bridge was in full use in 1921 when floods came to town. In northern New South Wales, two people drowned in Murwillumbah where the flood hit record levels, surpassing the 1893 flood by two feet.

The Bremer River flooded in Ipswich as it often does, and it was then that the Taylor Brothers launch disappeared. It had been moored in the river above the railway bridge, but then there was no sign of it. It just vanished.

However in 1947, twenty-six years later, a shipwreck mysteriously appeared in the Bremer River above the Ipswich traffic bridge. It was the remains of a thirty-foot sea-going motor launch fitting the description of the missing Taylor Brothers’ vessel.

After much debate, the ghostly wreck was eventually identified as that of the Taylor Brothers’ launch. She had been claimned by the 1921 flood, and more than a quarter of a century later, the timbers began to show every low tide on the sandbank above the Bremer Bridge.

For decades the boat continued to appear. In fact, it’s still there somewhere in the mud today.

It’s around one hundred and twenty years since the Taylor Brothers’ launch was built. She is now a ghostly reminder of A.Deadman and the bridge that was never opened.

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO A VERSION OF THIS STORY TOLD LIVE ON RADIO.

Photo credits:
Motor launch Olivine tied up at the Redcliffe Jetty, 1911 – State Library of Queensland.
Steamship Orford docked at Bretts Wharf Hamilton Brisbane, c1929 – State Library of Queensland.
Nolan’s Corner corner of Brisbane & Nicholas Streets, Ipswich, c1970 – Picture Ipswich.
Brassal Bridge Estate, 1918 – State Library of Queensland.
Waters swirl under Brassall Bridge – Queensland Times, Ipswich, 27th March 1946, page 1.