The historic bridge was severely damaged by the weekend’s storm surge which washed away about a quarter of the bridge from the northern end, depositing it further up the creek.

At it’s peak the bridge carries more than 1200 people per day across the creek and back to swim, fish or walk their dogs. That access is now gone, at least in the short term until the planned for new bridge is underway in a few months.

Wingham visitors Graham and Gail Urquhart have been holidaying in Crescent Head for more than 40 years.

They arrived after the wild weather and were shocked by what they saw.

“I mean the bridge is iconic isn’t it?” Graham said.

“I was talking to a few people about the storm and they reckon it was the worst storm surge they had seen.

“The damage to the camping areas has had a little bit of an impact on our holiday but the major thing is not being able to cross the bridge to the beach, particularly for young families with little kids makes it a bit difficult.”

Garry Cox has lived in Crescent Head for more than 20 years and has never seen the water up as high as it was on Saturday night.

“I had never seen it that bad, it was really flowing over the bridge,” he said.

“Swimming and fishing is out as far as the northern end of the beach goes and I used to go for a walk over there every morning for half an hour but not now.

Locals Margaret and John Haigh’s memories of the bridge go back more than 30 years as residents of Crescent head and in Margaret’s case, 70 years to her days as a Dondingalong schoolgirl.

“We just talking about bridge was built and trying to figure it out,” Margaret said.

“I remember coming to Crescent Head as a schoolgirl from Dondingalong for school trips.

“We had to wade across the creek and we were told to be back before high tide or we would get stuck and have to swim across.”