For 69 years prior to the opening of the bridge, however, there were paid crossings achieved by punt (car ferry) and passenger ferry.

According to Robert Milliken, in his review of car ferries that once crossed Wallis Lake (Manning Community News, Thursday, August 25, 2016), he wrote: "Traversing rivers and lakes on the Mid North Coast once involved driving cars on to punts, and crossing your fingers that you reached the other side. No such journey was more colourful, dramatic and dangerous than the one over Wallis Lake between Tuncurry and Forster."

Leslie (Mick) Constable (1917-1985), OAM, Great Lakes Historical Society foundation president on his first visit to Forster recorded: "I spent five hours from 11pm until 4am in a ferry on a sandbank midstream."

He was but one of many who suffered the inconvenience of being grounded on a sandbar.

There are records of punts breaking free from the guiding vessel.

Again from Robert Milliken: "One punt sank (carrying a bus, family car and lorry), and at least one was almost swept out to sea. Overloading was commonplace: several vehicles fell off the ends of punts and plunged into deep water. Miraculously, no lives were ever lost."

In Australia, ferries have tended to refer to passenger transportation, whereas the shallow draft flatboats used for vehicle transportation across rivers have been called punts.

A unique local problem for both water-crafts was that the narrowest crossing point of the Wallamba River at the entrance to Wallis Lake is also the location of shifting sand bars which, in turn, block a direct route from one shore to the other.

This also means that the shallow water over the sand bars block the use of the more traditional cable punt service.

A cable punt is guided, and in many cases propelled, across a river or large body of water by two cables connected to both shores.

A solution to moving people and heavy loads at Forster-Tuncurry involved navigating through the shifting sandbars.

Although not such a problem for ferries on their own during daylight hours, movement of the punt required a ferry boat being lashed to the punt and guiding it through the passages with the added challenges to the ferrymen of winds and strong tides.

This solution involving a boat tied to a punt was unique in Australia.

The photographic image shows the vehicle punt, the Punt III, being guided from to Forster to Tuncurry by the launch Monterey. Drivers and their passengers rode on the punt while foot passengers rode in the launch.

Punt and ferry operations ceased with the opening of the Forster-Tuncurry bridge on July 18, 1959. So ended the service once memorably described: It must be the most antedated, most unreliable and unsafe method of crossing a river anywhere in Australia. (SMH Friday, November 5, 1954).

The only remaining visible evidence of the landing wharves is a concrete slab on the waterline in Forster's Gregory Reserve and three wooden guide poles in the lake adjacent to Tuncurry's Lone Pine Park.

Both these sites are marked with memorial noticeboards which were erected under the auspices of the NSW Heritage Office and the (former) Great Lakes Council.

A straight line between the two wharf ramps runs parallel and close to the southern side of the current bridge but even a casual glance today will reveal the extent of sandbanks.

Prior to the opening of the bridge, however, there was a prior history encompassing 69 years of ferry and punt services with the first commercial ferry service across Wallis Lake beginning around 1890.

John Kennewell started this service using an open row-boat to ferry passengers across the lake.

The cost was one penny.

Horses, however, still had to be swum across although a buggy could be placed on the boat.

During the next 32 years, multiple ferry operators plied the waters between Forster and Tuncurry.

Rowing was steadily replaced by motors.

Local and state government involvement in improving the service was marked with indecision and 'buck passing', including the 1928 zoning of Forster (Stroud) and Tuncurry (Manning) in different local government areas.

The big change came in 1922 when the ferry service was taken over by Charles Blows who was the successful tenderer for the position as ferryman.

Blows introduced the first vehicular ferry across Wallis Lake when he had a small punt built by Dave Williams and used a boat to push the punt.

The punt cost £1125 paid for by Manning Shire Council and the Main Roads Board.

In all, there were only three punts used to provide the service until the bridge opening in 1959.

Although the passenger service became subsidised by the Local Government Department, it was an expensive exercise to have a vehicle conveyed on the privately owned punt.

Foot passengers were able to travel for free; however, for a one-way trip, cars were charged 2/6, trucks 4/-, and horse-drawn vehicles 1/6.

To put these fares in context, the average weekly wage in 1930 was £7 per week making a return journey by car of 5/- one fifth of a day's wages.

By 1930, there had already been general recognition that the vehicular ferry service was unduly limited in terms of capacity and cost.

In October 1933, Fred Parsons became the ferryman and began operations with his new launch and the council supplied punt with cost to convey a car across from Forster to Tuncurry reduced from 2/6; to 1/-.

By early 1937, Manning Shire Council was well aware of public concerns with the safety of the service (Dungog Chronicle, Friday May 21:1937): "Council was advised that in October 1936, the punt had grounded on a sand bank and been carried quite some distance after it was re-floated; the anchor being unable to hold. At the time, press had reported that the method of transport was entirely out of date and that it had caused a wave of fear amongst the public."

With pressure mounting to improved safety and access, steps were now well underway for the construction of the Forster-Tuncurry bridge.

The proposed bridge crossing to take the place of the ferry and punt services took new and attractive form when Stroud Shire Council, in February 1940, unanimously adopted recommendations contained in a detailed report by Stroud Council engineer, Mr Stone, to construct a bridge to replace the ferry and punt services at Forster-Tuncurry.

Although this project took another 19 years to achieve fruition, the bridge ultimately enabled significant and accelerated development of the twin-towns aided by the tourism and sandmining industries.

In more recent times, the area has emerged as a popular 'lifestyle region', with increasing numbers of retirees, people seeking an alternative or coastal lifestyle, and holiday makers.

What have we learned?

Prior to 1959, there were ever growing queues to cross the Wallamba River due to the inadequacies of the punts and ferries: 63 years later, we again face ever growing queues to cross due to the inadequacies of the Forster-Tuncurry bridge.