John Bradfield

He originated the bridge design, but who deserves the title of designer was disputed from 1929 and never finally resolved.

Bradfield originated the cantilever bridge design that a public works committee recommended in 1913 and later the arch design of 1650 feet span, and he wrote that tenders were called on his own design. In 1929 a dispute arose over who really designed the bridge, after newspaper articles by Ralph Freeman, consulting engineer to the builder Dorman Long, described him as the designer. According to the Australian Dictionary of Biography the controversy was never finally resolved. When Bradfield retired in 1933 the director of public works said he was the designer, yet modifications had been made to the design after Freeman visited in 1926, and in 1932 Dorman Long threatened to sue the government if it put up a plaque naming Bradfield as designer. One informed view held that the detail design was entrusted to Lawrence Ennis. The bridge is best described as a Bradfield and Dorman Long design, which is how the minister R. T. Ball put it.