Monthly Bulletin May/June 2005 - Vol 8 No. 3

Beacons by the Sea: Stories of Australian Lighthouses

by Kristie Eggleston, LoA Webmaster

The Beacons By The Sea: Stories of Australian Lighthouses touring exhibition presented by the National Archives of Australia finishes its show at the Eden Killer Whale Museum on 26 June 2005.

The history, romance, drama and tragedy associated with many of Australia's most famous lighthouses will be depicted in an exhibition of photos, drawings, films and oral histories at the Lady Denman Heritage Complex on Jervis Bay on the NSW South Coast in July and August. 

The exhibition - Beacons by the Sea - depicts the isolation of the lighthouses, their light-keepers and families, from the late 1800s, and features many personal stories that range from the humorous to the sad and the tragic. 

It also recounts in film, photo and print the stories of some of Australia's most famous shipwrecks, the role of the lighthouses in war, and their part in our maritime heritage. 

A collection of architectural drawings and sketches shows just how sturdy were our lighthouses from their earliest days to withstand the harshest weather conditions, there are light keeper's logbooks, a lighthouse messenger pigeon cylinder with its tiny message still intact, engravings, a model ship and a one-time lighthouse weather vane. 

The exhibition - on loan from the National Archives - opens at the Lady Denman Heritage Complex at Huskisson on Jervis Bay on 9 July, and runs until 26 August 2005. Entry to the ferry, museum and Beacons exhibition will be $8 adult, $6 concession, $2 child, $20 family.

(The Lady Denman Heritage Complex is home to one of Sydney's most famous former ferries, the Lady Denman that plied Sydney Harbour from 1912 to 1979. She is one of just three ferries on the State's Heritage Register, and the largest remaining vessel built on the South Coast; visitors can go aboard and see restoration work being undertaken on her. There is also a collection of maritime artifacts, photos, paintings, models and nautical memorabilia.) 

The exhibition dates are reproduced from the National Archives of Australia website below (all dates and locations are subject to review by the NAA):

Further dates and locations as previously indicated in the Bulletin have not been confirmed.

Previous Bulletin articles about the Beacons of the Sea Exhibition

• Exhibition beginnings - September 2002
• LoA members attend opening of exhibition at National Archives in Canberra - November 2002
• Exhibition moves to South Australia - September 2003
• Exhibition off to Western Australia - November 2003
• Exhibition moves to Kalgoorlie - February 2004
• Exhibition returns to South Australia - June 2004
• Exhibition leaves Eden for Jervis Bay - April 2005

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