[5] The ship Herald of the Morning, at the end of its second voyage to Australia in 1859, whilst bringing 419 immigrants and a mixed cargo that included the wrought iron trusses, caught fire and sank in Hobsons Bay.

[6] As a result, the Hawthorn bridge was delayed for several years while new trusses were made and shipped out to Australia.

Muntz designed the bridge and a contractor named Doran won the construction contract.

[3] The bridge was constructed with a divided-lane through-truss design, created specifically for the difficult river crossing and unique in Victoria.

[3] Whereas the huge lattice truss girders of the Redesdale Bridge had been imported from England in 1859, the colonial engineering works which had in the meantime developed to service reef and deep lead mining were quite capable of supplying such products for the Central Victorian, Glenmona Bridge, by 1870.