WODONGA'S disused stock bridge will "bit by bit float away" due to neglect, the owner of nearby Gypsy Gardens reception centre says.
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The timber span, which has been closed to the public since 2012, has been choked with debris below its deck due to recent flooding of the Wodonga Creek.
An old television and two 44-gallon drums, along with a large tangle of branches and sticks, have been caught at the crossing.
Wodonga Council cannot say when the eyesore will be fixed.
"Any works required around the bridge will be prioritised and carried out in line with what's likely to be a wide range of works to a significant number of flood-damaged assets across the city," a spokesman said.
The council declined to answer questions about whether it would do a structural assessment of the bridge or planned to fund any maintenance of the old stock route.
Gypsy Gardens director Judith Wayenberg, whose property is within sight of the bridge, believes there is little prospect of council investment in the rundown span.
"I think it's really beyond repair because one of the pylons has deteriorated significantly and every year the kids are coming down to jump off there and having fun, like kids do, and at the same time they're destroying it," she said.
"That's why it's hanging loose and it has got a little worse there with the recent floods.
"I think it's eventually going to, bit by bit, float away.
"I don't think the pylons will, but the rest of it will."
Wodonga Historical Society member Uta Wiltshire expressed a similar sentiment.
"It's very sad but unfortunately it's too late to save it, the cost would be prohibitive I would imagine," she said.
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Mrs Wiltshire said she would have welcomed preservation work on the old bridge at the time the new one was being built "so side by side they can be on display because it's got such a story to tell and it's a recent story, it is in my lifetime, it's not like it's ancient history".
Built in 1939 by the Country Roads Board, the bridge was used by drovers and their cattle has been classified of significance by the National Trust.
It is the second time in recent years it has become a rubbish collection point and environmental mess.
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