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Bridgewater Jerry


A dense, remarkably compact stream of fog which occasionally rolls down the western shore of the Derwent River (presumably from Bridgewater) into parts of Hobart: Drive slowly, visibility's down to 50m inside the Bridgewater Jerry. Also, Jerry.

Contributor's comments: Also "jerry": a winter fog which rolls down the Derwent valley (past Bridgwater) towards Hobart: "It was almost midday before the jerry lifted."

Contributor's comments: A very thick fog that rolls down the Derwent River towards Hobart, from the direction of Bridgewater: "Here comes the Bridgewater Jerry"

Contributor's comments: A front of fog Cold air drainage condensing. Usually 'Bridgewater gerry' describing the phenomena on the Derwent River from Bridgewater to Hobart but I have often heard it generalised in southern Tas. Not in any Tas lexicons. Suspect origin is post-WWI Gerry = German and looks like a gas cloud. The effect usually is that a bright clear and crisp Hobart morning swamped by cold fog flowing down the Derwent from Bridgewater: "Did you see the gerry running this morning? I was on the bridge when it hit." Generalised: "Careful about buying a place in that valley, there might be a right old gerry running down there in the winter."

Contributor's comments: The Bridgewater Jerry gently rolls it's way down the Derwent at the start of a winter day, often shrouding the low-lying riverside suburbs for most of the morning. Those people living in Hobart's hillside suburbs would often be basking in brilliant warm sunshine before plunging into the dense, wet and cold on their way to work or school.

Contributor's comments: I believe this term comes from the days when the Bridgewater Causeway was being built by the convicts - there was one named "Jerry" who was always smoking a pipe leaving a cloud behind him. Therefore when a fog was seen on the river it was associated with Jerry's pipe.