Pioneering families, traditional owners and a contemporary historian are all in the running to have a Huntly bridge named in their honour.
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The Huntly-Fosterville Road bridge, located north of Bendigo, will be the first of 40 crossings to be christened with a new name, an effort of VicTrack to make the locations easily identifiable during emergency events and natural disasters.
More than 60 nominations were received in December and January before the list was narrowed to just five finalists.
The shortlisted names are: Bill Pacholli Bridge; Burgoyne Bridge; Dhelk Baring Bridge; Ellis Bridge; and Esma Turner Bridge.
The decision will be determined by a public vote on the VicTrack website, closing June 13.
Bill Pacholli Bridge
Mr Pacholli, a World War I veteran stationed in Cairo and France, returned to Huntly after the war where he lived in a make-shift shed made out of tomato pulp tins.
He sold saveloys at football matches in Huntly to make ends meet.
The remains of his shed can still be seen in bushland near the bridge.
Burgoyne Bridge
Burgoyne Bridge is the unofficial name of the crossing, taken from the street that leads into Huntly-Fosterville Road.
A description on the VicTrack suggests the track is named after Thomas Burgoyne, a builder and politician who migrated from Wales to South Australia in 1849.
During the early days of his life in Australia, Mr Burgoyne joined the thousands of diggers searching for gold around Bendigo.
Dhelk Baring Bridge
The Dja Dja Wurrung, traditional owners of central Victorian country, put forward the name Dhelk Baring, which means ‘good pathway or track’.
Ellis Bridge
Pioneering couple Pascoe and Catherine Ellis will also have their surnames considered for the bridge.
Mr Ellis, a miner from Cornwall, and Ms Ellis, a widower from Country Clare, migrated to the district in the 1800s.
They married in 1867 at St Killian’s Church in Bendigo and raised a family of seven children, and their descendents ran a bakery and a grocery store in Huntly during World War II.
Esma Turner Bridge
Huntly and District Historical Society secretary Esma Turner is a long-term resident of the town in which the bridge is located, and a deeply committed historian for her local area.
Ms Turner was born in Bendigo Hospital and is a graduate of the city’s teachers’ college.
Her work with the historical society preserves and documents important parts of the area’s heritage.