Fitzroy Bridge carries the road across South Creek between McGraths Hill and Windsor in the Hawkesbury. European settlers needed a reliable crossing here from the earliest years of the Hawkesbury farms. Andrew Thompson built a floating bridge about 1802 and collected tolls; John Howe’s log bridge (Howe’s Bridge) followed about 1813. A wooden arch bridge named for Governor Sir Charles FitzRoy replaced earlier structures in the mid-nineteenth century (commonly dated 1848 in local histories).
An iron Fitzroy Bridge was erected in 1879–1881 (ironwork by D. & W. Robertson; construction associated with G. H. Royce) and opened to traffic in early March 1881. The present reinforced-concrete high-level bridge dates from the mid-1970s (opened 1974/1975 in Hawkesbury accounts). Beside the crossing stands the 1835 Toll House — one of only two intact toll houses remaining in New South Wales — rebuilt after the disastrous 1864 flood and restored externally in the 1990s.
Historic photographs in this post likely show an earlier Fitzroy span (timber or iron), not the modern concrete bridge. Caption images by era if dates are known; otherwise say “historic view” rather than implying the current structure.
