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Around Australia Chasing Lighthouses - John Ibbotson
"Once a danger, now safe” - Ian Clifford
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Dear Friends

Malcolm out of Action

Sorry for the delay in this month's Bulletin. It has actually been nearly finished, but I ended up having a much needed rest in hospital and with Ed and Deb away no one else was around that knew how to send it.

Deb and Ed Tie the Knot

Ed and Deb finally tied the knot at the Point Lonsdale Lighthouse and as if one lighthouse wasn't enough they have gone off to King Island to check out the lighthouses there. Full report in the December Bulletin which hopefully will come out very early December.

Ian Clifford gives us another great report

Another great report on the Norah Head Lighthouse as seen from the inside, and comparing it with the 2 other Barnet style lights of the same period.

First Instalment of John Ibbotson's Trip

John shares with us his adventure across the top of Australia in 3 parts beginning this Bulletin. John sees this as the final stage of preparation for a coffee table style book on Australian lighthouses as they were at the end of the 20th Century.

Malcolm Macdonald
[Photograph: Deborah Taylor]
eMail Malcolm

Around Australia Chasing Lighthouses

[John Ibbotson]

Over the years I have photographed most of the major lighthouses in southern two thirds of Australia. To be able to finalize putting together a coffee table book "Lighthouses of Australia - Images from the End of the Twentieth Century" I needed to photograph those between Cleveland and Carnarvon. I decided that the best way to do this was to drive right around the country.

An old friend John (Jack) Bruil from Seattle offered to come and keep me company, an offer I quickly accepted. We left Melbourne on September 4th in my '76 Valiant station wagon. The idea of driving a 24-year-old car 20,000km around Australia drew a lot of derisive remarks and laughter from friends. I was not the slightest bit concerned about its reliability.

We wasted no time in arriving in Queensland although we did stop to see Beverley Atkins and David Gray at AMSA in Canberra, Mark Sheriff at Sugarloaf Point and Liz and Ray Campbell at Smokey Cape. Liz and Ray have just opened up the cottages for visitors so if you're looking for a great place to stay at Seal Rocks…. Once over the border we also visited John Sugarman at AMSA in Brisbane and Stuart (& Shirley) Buchanan, the author of "The Lighthouse Keepers" and "Lighthouse of Tragedy".

The old Cleveland Lighthouse sits behind the new beacon
[Photograph Courtesy: Jean-Marc Doumenc]

The new light at Cleveland doesn't have much character but the old light is nearby and makes a visit worthwhile. From there we went over to Moreton Island - on the ferry as foot passengers. Sand is not one of the Valliant's strong points!

Cape Moreton Lighthouse is the only stone lighthouse in Queensland
[Photograph Courtesy: John Ibbotson]

We rented a little 4WD and bounced out to Cape Moreton for sunset and again for sunrise. Apart from being a spectacular light it is the only stone lighthouse in Queensland.

The new Point Cartwright tower
[Photograph Courtesy: Grant Maizel]

Point Cartwright is an elegant tower. It was built to replace the Caloundra light that was being obscured by surrounding high-rise buildings. Cartwright is the only Australian lighthouse I know of that has a flush toilet half way up the tower.

The long hike up to Double Island Point was worth it
[Photograph Courtesy: Ken Gott]

We hired another 4WD at Rainbow Beach to travel out to Double Island Point. It is quite a long walk up to the light from the gate at the beach but well worth it. There is an organized tour from Rainbow Beach that is allowed to drive up to the light. Definitely the way to go if you're not into huffing and puffing.

Sandy Cape was the only place where you have to pay a photographers fee
[Photograph Courtesy: John Ibbotson]

On Fraser Island it was possible that the Ngkala Rocks would be impassable so we flew in and landed on the beach near the lightstation. Great way to get there except for the National Park Service (NPS) red tape. It was also the only place in Australia that has required me to pay a photographers fee. That would be ok if I was going to make a profit out of this project but that is as remote a possibility as lighthouses taking over from GPS.

The unique red and white tiled Burnett Heads Lighthouse
[Photograph Courtesy: Marguerite Stephen]

In Bundaberg we went out to the South Head (Burnett River) light. The tower is covered in tiles like Point Cartwright and the old Fitzroy Island light.

The old Breaksea Spit Lightship waiting to be scrapped.
[Photograph Courtesy: John Ibbotson]

We also found the old Breaksea Spit lightships (SLC7 and SLC8) moored in the river. They were a sad sight. They are currently being made "environmentally clean" before being taken off shore and sunk to become part of a manmade reef.

It seems that the only lightships that will survive for prosperity are the ones in the Queensland and National Maritime museums.

The old Lady Elliot Tower next to it's replacement.
[Photograph Courtesy: John Ibbotson]

From Bundaberg we flew out to Lady Elliot Island for a day. It's a lovely low-key resort and I would have liked to spend a few days there. The old light there has been deactivated and handed over to the NPS. A 32-meter frame tower that can be seen above the tops of the casuarina trees has replaced it. Don Adams planted these trees in 1969 but trimming of the trees was not permitted and the light was obscured. Although the old light no longer shines the fence around it has been removed and it has been given a new coat of paint. Maybe in the future access to the tower will be permitted.

Despite the good appearance of the tower the area has been badly vandalised.
[Photograph Courtesy: John Ibbotson]

The trip to Bustard Head from the Town of 1770 in a Pink LARC was an informative and enjoyable day. The light is in good condition but it is sad to see the state of the houses that were vandalized some years ago. The whole lightstation area, except for the tower looked abandoned. Hopefully one of the proposals to restore the station will be given the go ahead.

John Ibbotson <johnibbo@mira.net>
[Photograph: John Ibbotson]

Read part 2 of Johns 3 part report on his adventure across the top of Australia in the December Bulletin.

Once a danger, now safe

[Ian Clifford]

Norah Head Visit

Photographing the internals of Norah Head represented the last chapter in something I had always wanted to do, visit and photograph Point Perpendicular, Norah Head and Cape Byron. So on yet another rainy day after four hours on the road most of it spent traversing the Sydney morning peak hour, which on a wet day makes Bourke and Wills adventures pale in comparison, I arrive at Norah Head.

It must be the time of year, it was around the same time last year that I visited the Solitary Islands off Coffs Harbour, and I was plagued by showers.

The Point Perpendicular Lighthouse
[Photograph Courtesy: Ian Clifford]

The Cape Byron Lighthouse
[Photograph Courtesy: Ian Clifford]

The reason for my particular interest in Norah is its design. This it shares with Point Perpendicular, built in 1898/99 and Cape Byron built in 1899/00/01.

The Norah Head Lighthouse
[Photograph Courtesy: Ian Clifford]

Norah was the last built of the three in 1902/03. In fact it was the last major lighthouse built on the NSW coast completing the most remarkable program of major lighthouse building in the Australian colonial period. The aim of the then president of the NSW Marine Board to light the NSW coast like a " street with lamps" or to be exact one lighthouse on average every 33.8 miles, the highest density achieved in Australia.

As with Cape Byron sandblasted around the lighthouse service crest in the glass panels of the doorway at the tower's entrance is a Latin inscription, "Olim periculum-nunc salus" -
Meaning " Once a danger, now safe".

The Chance Bros nameplate on the Norah Head Lighthouse
[Photograph Courtesy: Ian Clifford]

There remains some doubt about whether James Barnet or Charles Harding designed the three lights. Certainly the plans and specifications are the work of Harding, as Barnet retired from his position as colonial architect in 1890. The design certainly has the Barnet characteristics, attached rooms, black and white tiled floors and bluestone balconies. Barnet certainly claimed them to be of his design later in life.

The bases are mass concrete and the towers are constructed of preformed concrete blocks lifted and cemented into position before being concrete rendered inside and out.

This method saving time and money as unlike earlier lighthouses built of mass concrete no formwork was required.

Norah cottages from tower
[Photograph Courtesy: Ian Clifford]

Norah Head is located just North of the popular Central Coast holiday destination The Entrance, which derives it name from being at the sea entrance to Tuggerah Lake. The headland is relatively low so the tower is the biggest of the three at twenty-seven metres to the top of the lantern house.

Ian inspecting the Chance Bros lens
[Photograph Courtesy: Ian Clifford]

Perhaps the government felt Chance Bros had learnt their lesson, as Norah is fitted with a 2nd order (700mm) catadioptric 2 panel lens giving a .05sec flash of 1,000,000 candelas every 15 sec. Note the same character as Cape Byron with its unique French optic, but only half as bright with a slightly longer flash. You would really have to be a lousy navigator to confuse the two, as they are about 600km apart.

The base of the unusually large pedestal of Norah Head
[Photograph Courtesy: Ian Clifford]

The pedestal looking up
[Photograph Courtesy: Ian Clifford]

This very large lens is mounted unusually high on a large steel frame above a mercury float completing one revolution every 30 sec. The lantern room is reached by ascending a precisely proportioned spiral staircase curving around the inner wall.

The spiral stairs leading up to the lantern room
[Photograph Courtesy: Ian Clifford]

A fixed red subsidiary light located lower down in the North face of the tower of 280 candelas now provided by a modern plastic API 12 volt beacon warns of Bull's Head a reef located offshore to the north. It was here in 1894 that the "Gwydir" was wrecked.

The red subsidiary light
[Photograph Courtesy: Ian Clifford]

Amazingly another ship of the same name ran aground in almost the same spot 48 years later after a collision in blackout conditions during the Second World War.

The green subsidiary light
[Photograph Courtesy: Ian Clifford]

A second subsidiary light was fitted in 1995 to warn of offshore shoals to the south east of the lighthouse. Also an API FA 250 beacon, this one producing a green light of 250 candelas. The beacon is mounted on the internal catwalk beside the main lens.

The wind direction indicator
[Photograph Courtesy: Ian Clifford]

Adjacent to the subsidiary beacon on the catwalk is a wind direction indicator driven by a mechanical linkage from the wind vane located on top of the lantern house.

The cottages are also constructed of precast concrete blocks to the same design as Cape Byron and Point Perpendicular and are now under the control together with the lighthouse reserve of the Department of Land And Water Conservation. The operation of the Light remains under the control of AMSA.

References;
1. Romance of Australian Lighthouses by Valmai Phillips
2. From Dusk Till Dawn a history Of Australian Lighthouses. Dept Of Transport and Communications.

Ian Clifford <icliffo@tpgi.com.au>.
[Photograph: Richard Jermyn]

Letters & Notices:

Albany's Breaksea & Point King Lighthouses

Hi Malcolm Just wondering if you have any information in relation to the construction of these two lighthouses? My grandfather John (Jack) Wright (he was a builder in Albany in the early 1900's and was involved in the building of at least one of these two lighthouses. I'm doing my family history and if there were any stories documented that may include him I would be interested in getting some information to include in my research. Would be interested getting the history of these two lighthouses regardless if available. Kind Regards Geoff Rowsell email: growsell@webone.com.au

Shipwrecked, Jailed and Mutinied!

Hi Malcolm My name's Byron Smith, great great grandson of Samuel Smith, a lighthouse keeper who worked along the Victorian coast at Cape Otway, Wilsons prom etc. He fought in the Maori war and was decorated, was once shipwrecked on a pacific island, was thrown in jail for mutiny and had 11 kids!! Please write back if this rings any bells or you'd like some more info (I have a newspaper article about his life). Cheers. Byron Smith. Email <byron@dare.com.au>

Needed. Photograph and Details of Intact Oil Burner Lamp

Hi Malcolm, I am the editor of Light International in England, which is the official organ of the International Guild of Lamp Researchers in PA. I am presenting a lead article on Arthur Kitson who developed burners for lighthouses as well as Fred Tilley. Can you help me with a photograph for the front cover of the January 2001 issue - at the moment it carries a photo of the Portland Head light in Maine, but I could use a photo of an oil fired light with some text to go with it i.e. type of burner, photos of burner, photos of Fresnels etc. We have subscribers in South Australia, West Australia, ACT, Queensland and NSW. Hope you can help me in this. John Claypole: Email <Lightinter@aol.com> Editor of Light International, 4 High Ridge, Cavendish Park, Matlock, Derbyshire, DE4 - 3HP England or Light International, PO Box 396 West Paducah Ky USA.

 

Feel free to post any request, letters, notices here regarding research, events etc for any Australian Lighthouse on this notice board.

<keeper@lighthouse.net.au>

Department of Scrounge:

If anybody has any of this material on any Australian lighthouses including the ones listed at the Department of Scrounge it would appreciated, especially the high priority ones:

• Original Colour Photographs
• Historical Photographs or Postcards
• History, experiences and anecdotes
• Technical History

Please eMail <Keeper>

New Links for Australia:

No new links for Australia this month

If your e-mail does not display in HTML these pages can be accessed from the "New Listing for Month Index" at <http://www.lighthouse.net.au/lights/New/Index%20New.htm>

Australian News:

Anyone with any articles or stories effecting Australian Lighthouse are welcome to contribute them.

Join Proposed Lighthouses of Australia Inc.

In August I announced my intention of leaving the Project and the intention of forming a incorporated body to take over. The response so far has been quite positive with interest from people with all sorts of backgrounds and skills.

There is a little bit of "red tape" to go though with a period of 3-4 weeks to actually form the body. Once this is done we can officially receive the new members and start to function as a group.

There is still time to throw your hat into the ring, whether it just be a financial member or direct involvement on the committee, web pages, the bulletin or some other aspect that could enrich the site.

A charter has been developed and can be found on-line at <../../About/Charter.htm>.

A constitution has been developed and can be found on-line at <../../About/Constitution.htm>.

The suggested memberships and costs are as follows:

• Individual Membership (12 months) $25 AUD

  Other groups/bodies with in interest in Lighthouses:

  • Non-Profit Organisation or Group Membership (12 months) $50 AUD
  • Small Business Membership (12 months) $100 AUD
  • Large Corporate, Government Department & Statutory Authority Memberships and Sponsorship by negotiation.

To join, visit the Membership page.

Thanks to the Following People for Their Help in October:

Janet Scott (Updated links)
Paul Maxwell (History & Photo Links)
Marek Ledochowski (Lighthouse CD)
Di Bingham (Photo)

Thanks to all the people who have put links to the site

Thanks to those who let me use their photos for thumbnails.

Regards until the Dec 2000 Bulletin
Malcolm Macdonald

http://www.lighthouse.net.au/lights/

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Lighthouses of Australia Web Site First Published: 3/12/97

Photographs & Contributions:

Grant Maizel for Photographs
Jean-Marc Doumenc for Photographs
John Ibbotson for Story and Photographs
Ken Gott for Photographs
Ian Clifford for Story and Photographs
Marguerite Stephen for Photograph
Richard Jermyn for Photograph

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