Location: Koona Street,Albion Park Rail

Slater’s Bridge is named in honour of the Slater family who lived on the west side of Horsely Creek.

In 1923, Robert Slater married Beatrice Russell and soon after, moved from Sydney to Oak Flats. Robert worked as a timber getter for Bernard Kirton, a saw miller from Thirroul who had a contract to supply pit props for the local coalmines.

He built the family home from bits and pieces of building materials one room at a time. The floor of the Slater cottage was given to the family from the local rifle range and was four inches thick, and the front doors were made from tram seats.

Robert also worked as a bridge builder: constructing one on the Esplanade at Oak Flats, and helping build the first Windang Bridge in 1938. He built the first bridge across Horsley Creek, but it was lost some years later in strong floods. The replacement bridge is named in honour of the family.

Robert died in 1950 and Beatrice remained in the same home that her husband built until she was 100 years old. Beatrice used to swim in Horsley Creek every morning at 6am. One day, a group of eight children jumped off the bridge into the creek and got into trouble. Beatrice swam each child back to the shore, one after the other. She was 75 years old at the time.