Richmond in southern Tasmania is home to many buildings and structures built by convicts under the most appalling conditions. One such structure, the Coal River Bridge was completed in 1825, making it the oldest surviving freestone bridge in Australia.

For some years Richmond had been used as a crossing point for people travelling by land to the Tasman and Forestier Peninsulas. The need for a bridge across the Coal River was obvious as early as 1820 when the Royal Commissioner John Thomas Bigge recommended it. The bridge was built by convict labour between 1823 and 1825 for movement of military, police and convicts between Hobart and Port Arthur. When the Coal river was in flood access to the East coast was greatly restricted. Major repairs were needed in 1828 and 1884.
The stone structure comprises of four main arches with a smaller arch to each side, the arches springing from sloping buttresses, with angular leading edges aligned with the flow of the river. The solid stone ballustrade terminates in a round bollard.
The bridge has more than its fair share of mythology. It is suggested that one convict, tired of his lot, committed suicide by hurling himself from the bridge. Another story tells of the murder of a particularly cruel overseer named George Grover. The convicts, tired of his maltreatment, turned on their tormentor, beat him, and threw him to his death.
Grover was transported to Van Diemens Land in 1825 for stealing. He died early March, 1832 a number of years after the bridge was built. By then he was an ex-convict employed at Richmond Gaol as a flagellator at Richmond. He seemed particularly good at 'aiding' other people to get into trouble, particularly for fighting and sexual assault.  His record indicates that he was murdered by being thrown from the parapet of Richmond Bridge when he was drunk. Grover's ghost is said to appear around the bridge at certain times. The ghost of a large black and white dog, sometimes called "Grover's Dog," is also seen on the bridge. One woman states that it appeared at her side on a few separate occasions when she walked the bridge at night. The animal would would walk alongside her, from on end to the other, and then disappear.

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