On the evening of Sunday 5 January 1975, the bulk carrier Lake Illawarra was travelling down the Derwent River in Hobart on its way to deliver zinc ore to Port Pirie. Just after 9pm the Lake Illawarra, attempting to pass under the Tasman Bridge, missed the main navigation channel and brought down two piers of the bridge, causing more than 100 metres of road to collapse 45 metres into the river below, along with four cars that drove over the gap.
Five people in the cars died, as well as seven crew members on the ship, which was struck by the falling masonry and sank within minutes. The occupants of two cars left dangling on the edge of the bridge were miraculously able to escape.
Casualties would have been much higher had it not been a quiet Sunday evening in the new year holiday period.
The destruction of part of the bridge left Hobart split in two, with residents on the eastern shore cut off from the main part of the city, including most of Hobart’s hospitals, shopping districts, schools and government services. Large numbers of people needed to cross the bridge daily to get to work.
As a stop gap to connect the two shores, ferry services were immediately put in place, including some with vessels towed from Sydney Harbour. A temporary bridge was built by the following December.
A court of marine inquiry was convened under two judges on 30 April 1975. It found the master of the ship guilty of misconduct of careless navigation and suspended his certificate of competency for six months.
Rebuilding began in October 1975 and cost about $44m, funded by the federal government. The Tasman Bridge was officially reopened on 8 October 1977.
Because of the debris left by the collapse, only one of the two piers was replaced, carrying two spans above instead of the original three, the uneven spacing providing a permanent reminder of the disaster.
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