Her grandfather, Charles Allen, was a timekeeper on the original iron bridge in the late 1800s.
Mr Allen worked for a law firm in London, before being drawn to the Ballarat gold rush and eventually moving to New Zealand, where he was a gold mine manager.
He came to Australia in 1877, where he and his wife Catherine had 11 children, one of them was Trudy.
She will be flanked by her youngest daughter, Felicity Price, and son-in-law Colin.
The three of them were on the mobility buses and were the first members of the public to have access to the bridge.
What a bridge timekeeper actually did remains a mystery, with The Riv’s research unable to uncover the origins of the role and an inquiry to Echuca Historical Society also coming up empty-handed.
Our best guess is that the timekeeper was either connected to the trains that regularly crossed the bridge or to the workers who were building the bridge.
Mr Allen died before Mrs Tomlinson was born, in 1924.
Mrs Tomlinson has 13 grandchildren, 14 great-grandchildren and four great-great-grandchildren.
Her extended family has a five-generation history in Moama.
Mrs Tomlinson was born at Echuca Hospital and worked as a dressmaker for many years.
“Mum and dad (Henry and Louise Wild) had seven children, I am the youngest,” she said.
“Dad was a farmer for many years and then drove a taxi. He died in 2012 at the age of 96.”
Longevity is part of the family history, Felicity’s grandfather was 91 or 92 when he died.
Mrs Tomlinson’s children are now scattered far and wide from Mildura to Colac and Deniliquin.
“My brother and I are the only ones still in Moama,” Felicity said.
Mrs Tomlinson’s father used to walk across the new iron bridge to go to school in Echuca.
“I thought it was only fitting that I took her across there when I could,” Felicity said.
She is no newcomer to publicity, featuring in The Riv’s 0-100 feature story as a 94-year-old.
“When I last saw her on Wednesday I told her we are hoping to get her across the bridge. She said, ‘that would be nice’.’’
Mrs Tomlinson’s maiden name was Wild, her father Henry a member of the well-known Echuca-Moama family.
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