Robert's Ramblings

I have always been fascinated by Port Adelaide's Birkenhead Bridge.

The idea that a bridge can decide to not be a bridge anymore, open up to let tall ships through and then transform back into a bridge again seemed to me to be a marvel of engineering.

To be fair I was only a child at the time and up until that realisation a bridge was a bridge, was a bridge, was a bridge!

My experience of a transforming bridge must seem so naive in this day of mechanical transformers such as Optimus Prime, Megatron and Bumblebee.

To me however, Port Adelaide's Birkenhead Bridge will always be the original transformer!


Photo: Robert Rath, 'Day 835, Birkenhead Bridge', 1/8000s f16 ISO100 130mm

Who is this mysterious merwoman who adorns 'The One And All' as her figurehead?

I have search high and low for her name but alas I am left none the wiser.

In all the texts I have found she is simply referred to as 'the figurehead'.

I even found one reference to the artist who carved her, Ainsley Pine, however a search for more information on Ainsley was even more obscure leading me nowhere.

So who is this mysterious merwoman who adorns 'The One And All' as her figurehead?


Photo: Robert Rath, 'Day 834, Mystery Merwoman', 1/640s f2.8 ISO400 200mm