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Enza Gandolfo was in her first year of high school when it happened: the catastrophic collapse of part of the West Gate Bridge being built over Melbourne’s Yarra River.
Like anyone who lived in the area, she has never forgotten the morning of October 15, 1970.
“I was 10 minutes down the road when it happened. I remember that day. I remember the sirens. It had a profound impact on our neighbourhood, where everyone knew someone who worked on the bridge.” Almost 50 years later, Gandolfo has put that experience into a novel, The Bridge, which last night was shortlisted for the $50,000 Stella Prize for writing by Australian women.
The West Gate disaster, in which 35 workmen died, remains Australia’s...