I think the article is wrong about 7 car bridges. I only count 5. Plus the Victoria and Eleanor Schonell bridges, which are bus only.

But it is remarkably true. Even having lived a one-minute walk from the river (and a less than ten minutes light jog to the Eleanor Schonell Bridge, and a out a 10 minute walk to a ferry stop that's only one stop away from being on the other side) for 12 years, I personally have spent very little time south of the river. And that vanishes to near zero—I could probably count the number of occasions as an adult on my hands—if we exclude the first 2 km bordering the river, such as South Bank, West End, and the parts of the River Loop on the southern end.