Dear Friends

One Man Bands Have a Limited Life

Part of a result of my illness over the last 2 years is that I have narrowed my own involvement down to mainly keeping the Bulletin going as I think this is the life blood of our organisation. Even then this takes up at least 40 hours a month!

One of our long term supporters hit the nail on the head recently when he said he should stop unloading things directly on me. Many of you are still doing it and I am yet to convince you that you have to organise yourselves to move LoA Inc forward.

I have no problem with things coming straight to me and I don't mind being involved. What is stressful and really tires me is when there is an expectation that "I" am going to do something about it alone.

In reality I have no more skills, ability or time than most of you. I remember when I didn't know how to to do most of the things I now do for granted. I am amazed how often I still make new discoveries.

On the other hand many of you have expectations of what you have to do that are far too high. In reality some jobs are very simple and come together to make a larger component.

Many hands make light work. There is a regular group that does small jobs and this makes the load easier. Some of these jobs are very simple but save hours on things like the Bulletin.

The amount of emails I get saying "but what can I do?" Well you can do an amazing amount right in your own area. Here are a few examples:

• Keeping an eye out for local lighthouse news and issues for the Bulletin
• Promoting LoA Inc in your area and signing up new members
• Finding out who has the history, anecdotes and old photos of your local lighthouse
• Organising activities such as:
  • Managing the registration of pages with search engines
  • The annual dinner when it comes to your State (Perth, WA, 2003)
  • Gathering together members in your area for your own functions and activities
  • Fund raising
  • Forming "Home Lighthouse Groups" to adopt a lighthouse and watch out for it's welfare.
• Finding links to match keyword in Bulletin stories
• The registration of pages with search engines
• Finding new links to replace broken links
• Being a financial member

I suppose the thing is to step back and look not at what you can't do but examine your existing skills and see if they can be used in some way no matter how small to move LoA Inc towards its objectives.

Time is Coming for LoA Inc to Take a Stand

Parting of being involved in a group that works for the preservation, protection and promotion of lighthouse heritage is that inevitably one day we will have to take a stand on an issue that may end up being unpleasant.

A recent example of this was the campaign to stop AMSA from demolishing the Cape Jaffa platform.

There are rumblings that one of major lightstations that has been leased is rapidly deteriorating because when the lease was made up there was no formal agreement for the responsibility of maintaining the physical infrastructure of the heritage buildings.

While I can not give specific details at the moment we are monitoring the situation and hope to bring details to you, hopefully including a resolution, in an upcoming Bulletin.

It is easy to enjoy romantic trip stories and historical features and other functions but the purpose of our group is to also make the hard decisions and take a stand when necessary.

This Month's Features

The great epoch journey comes to an end with Lloyd and Winsomes' Lighthouses of the Air - Tasmania. This leg completes their circumnavigation of Australia, photographing all our lights.

The re-lighting of the Wollongong Breakwater Lighthouse made a great backdrop for the 2002 LoA Inc Annual Dinner and added to the night's success.

Several days later saw us at the US Lighthouse Society Australian tour farewell dinner in St Kilda where we met old friends and made many new ones.

The Johnsons on Maatsuyker radio interview is a brief grab of an audio interview with the current caretakers of the lightstation on this, the most remote lightstation in Australia.

This Month's News

After 28 years the and a full restoration Wollongong Breakwater Lighthouse relit in conjunction with the LoA Inc 2002 Annual Dinner.

Last month Point Lonsdale celebrated its 100th anniversary of the current tower with a commemoration and rededication service.

After 10 long years of lobbying the Bustard Head Lighthouse Association takes possession of the lightstation. Now the long job of restoration and preparation begins.

The Western Australian Government has decided that Cape Leeuwin and Cape Naturaliste are to be leased. We wait with baited breath for the outcome.

Malcolm Macdonald
Bulletin Editor
<keeper@lighthouse.net.au>
[Photograph: Marguerite Stephen]

[David Hurburgh <hurburgh@access1.com.au>]

Months of planning went into Winsome and Lloyd's latest expedition "Lighthouses from the Air - Tasmania".

They had learned a lot from having circumnavigated the continent of Australia by Cessna in mid-2001. Logistics were going to be a lot simpler; the size of Tasmania saw to that.

Lloyd and Winsome had picked up quite a few "tricks" from the earlier expedition. Lloyd was now an old hand at doing the tight maneuvers in VH-RNL when doing the orbits around the lighthouses, and Winsome was now an expert "aerial photographer" having shot thousands of frames during the circumnavigation of "The Big Island".

Monday 31 December 2001 ~ Maitland to Yarram

Unfortunately the flight south to Tasmania from their home base of Maitland (NSW) was not going to be fuss-free.

In that last week of December 2001 huge bushfires were raging from north of Sydney down to the South Coast of NSW, almost to the Victorian border. Extremely poor visibility, due to thick smoke, made flying in light aircraft impossible.

The interruption to the front end of the trip meant postponing another lighthouse-photographing run down the South Coast. Instead it involved a long flight, making a wide sweep westwards and inland to avoid the bushfires and the heavy smoke.

Tuesday 1 January 2002 ~ Yarram to Flinders Island

After the delay, they made it safely down to Bass Strait on New Year's Day 2002. Their first overnight stop was Flinders Island.

On their arrival it was wet and windy, but our travellers didn't mind, after all the hassles up north.

Conditions around the Deal Island light were too turbulent to get in close, but Winsome got some good shots of Swan Island and Goose Island.

These convict built lights are the oldest (circa 1843) in Bass Strait. The two lights are very similar, with Goose being the taller by 3 metres.

Lighthouses From the Air: Part 1
Lighthouses From the Air: Part 2
Lighthouses From the Air: Part 3
Lighthouses From the Air: Part 4
Lighthouses From the Air: Part 5
Lighthouses From the Air: Part 6
Lighthouses From the Air: Part 7

The Deal Island Lighthouse in Bass Strait.
[Photograph: Winsome Bonham]

The Swan Island Lighthouse in Bass Strait.
[Photograph: Winsome Bonham]

The Goose Island Lighthouse in Bass Strait.
[Photograph: Winsome Bonham]

Wednesday 2 January ~ Flinders Island (rest day)

Winsome and Lloyd were impressed by the familiarity of the Flinders Island locals with aviation. The Islanders have a high dependence on planes, which provide much of their essential services and transport.

Lloyd struck up a great conversation with Leedham Walker, the owner of the main store in Whitemark (Flinders' principle town). The Walker's are also the local Avgas agent, so all aspects of flying are familiar to them. Winsome recalls how friendly and helpful these island people were.

Lloyd strikes up a great discussion about their trip with Leedham and Judy Walker.
[Image: Winsome Bonham]

Thursday 3 January ~ Flinders Island to Wynyard

The next sector took the Cessna towards the Tasmanian "mainland". Landfall was at the Low Head Light. Its distinctive broad red band around its middle, struck Winsome as being particularly attractive. Low Head marks the mouth of the Tamar River.

They also picked up the three "leading lights" which mark the tricky navigation channels near the mouth of the river.

Heading west towards Devonport, Mersey Bluff is another boldly marked light, with a vertical red stripe on the seaward side, and then painted white on the inland side.

The Don Valley tourist steam railway engine was out on an excursion as the Cessna flew along the coastline at 500 feet. Maintaining this altitude gave our fliers enviable views of the rocky North West Coast

Table Cape near Wynyard, is a beautiful location. In springtime the surrounding paddocks are full of tulip blooms. The last two lights for the day were Round Hill Point and Rocky Cape.

Friday 4 January ~ Wynyard to Cambridge ( Hobart)

Today, the flight plan took them back east. Eddystone Point, which marks the easternmost extremity of Tasmania is a formidable structure built out of locally quarried granite.

It is fitting that this light should be named after the famous Eddystone light in England. The bright orange and red lichens that seem to cover much of the rocky coastal landforms around Tasmania impressed Winsome.

Most of the new generation GRP huts around the Tasmanian coast are hard to see from the air. Since they lack the aesthetics of classic lighthouses this is hardly a bad thing.

Half way down the East Coast is the Freycinet Peninsula where the Cape Tourville and Point Home Lookout lighthouses were built in the early 1970s.

Although the lights are substantial concrete structures, the adjoining utility rooms have been clad with local granite, which helps them blend into the landscape. A new boardwalk at Cape Tourville gives sublime views along the rugged coastline.

This year 2002 marks the bicentenary of the detailed exploration and mapping of the Tasmanian East Coast by the French navigator Nicholas Baudin. This explains the many French place names (such as Tourville, Freycinet, Bruni D'entrecasteaux) around the Tassie coastline

The Freycinet National Park is a very popular destination for both bushwalkers and those visiting the local resorts.

The pink granite mountains in the park are known as the Hazards, named after a Captain Hazard who was shipwrecked there.

They form a picturesque backdrop behind the township of Coles Bay. The blue waters and white sands of nearby Wineglass Bay have made this area a prime attraction for visitors.

Heading up the Derwent River towards Hobart, Winsome was impressed by the elegant sweep of the Tasman Bridge, which links the city to its Eastern Shore.

Saturday 5 January ~ Cambridge to Cambridge

At the entrance to the Derwent Estuary, she photographed the famous Iron Pot Lighthouse and the distinctive red beacon with the formal name John Garrow Shoal.

To the local "yachties" this blood red beacon off Sandy Bay's Long Point is known as Blinking (even Stinking) Billy. A nearby effluent pipe outlet might have something to do with its nickname.

The Ferry that runs from Kettering to Bruny Island.
[Image: Winsome Bonham]

Along the Dentrecasteaux Channel, which separates the 70 km long Bruny Island from the mainland, there are numerous GRP huts. On the southern tip of Bruny Island is Cape Bruny.

A GRP hut has replaced the beautiful historic light, however the original infrastructure is being kept in good shape, thanks to its role as a prime tourist destination.

From Bruny, it was a short sector tracking north east across Storm Bay to the southeast tip of the Tasman Peninsula.

Tasman Island has to be the most spectacular setting for a lighthouse in Australian waters. The 300 metre high vertical cliffs rise straight from the sea.

A 3-D model of this terrain is viewable through this link at the Parks and Wildlife website.

The organ-pipes of columnar dolerite around Tasman Peninsula are a true sentinel to all mariners in the area. They make you appreciate the skills and qualities needed to build and maintain a lighthouse in such a location. The recently expanded Tasman National Park preserves much of this coastline.

The nearby Port Arthur convict-era ruins are grimly emblematic but at the same time, make a strangely beautiful sight. It forms an essential Tasmanian icon of a past long gone but also evokes memories of more recent history.

Sun/Mon/Tues - 6, 7 & 8 January 2002 ~ Southern Tasmania (rest days)

Winsome and Lloyd based themselves at Sorell (near the Cambridge Airport) just outside Hobart for a few days. It was Lloyd's first visit to the island so they made sure they visited many of the key attractions for visitors in the southern part of the state.

The Tasmanian Waratah in full bloom on Mount Wellington.
[Image: Winsome Bonham]

Winsome was rewarded during a trip to the summit of Mt Wellington when she saw a Tasmanian Waratah in full bloom. This flower is a close cousin to the spectacular red floral emblem of New South Wales.

A visit to the historic village of Richmond was essential. Both of our travellers loved seeing the Georgian era (1820s) architecture that is so well preserved in this town.

The historic Richmond Bridge is Australia's oldest.
[Image: Winsome Bonham]

The highlight is the sandstone bridge, which is the oldest surviving bridge in Australia.

They also visited Battery Point and the Shot Tower at Taroona. On Sunday they did a day trip across on the ferry to Bruny Island.

Strong winds delayed the start of the next flying sector. Even the locals weren't flying that day, so Lloyd thought that this was a sufficient caution.

The Russell Falls in the Mount Field National Park.
[Image: Winsome Bonham]

They took advantage of another day on the ground by touring the Midlands, and seeing the historic town of Oatlands and coming back to Hobart via Mount Field National Park. Winsome loved the walk up to the Russell Falls.

Wednesday 9 January 2002 ~ Cambridge to Strahan

It was time to get back in the Cessna and hit the lighthouse trail once more.

They tracked all the way south to Maatsuyker Island. This is the southernmost light in Australian waters. Although a GRP cabinet has replaced the historic light, there is still a human presence during the summer months on the island with a volunteer weather watcher keeping an eye on things.

They had now "turned the corner" and were heading up the West Coast of Tasmania. The long extensive sandy beaches along this coast really surprised Winsome since she was expecting a rugged coastline.

Even so, not far inland is the World Heritage South West Wilderness Area with its spectacular mountain scenery, alpine lakes and in places, almost impenetrable forest.

Tracy who lent Lloyd and Winsome a car while at Strahan.
[Image: Winsome Bonham]

Half way along the West Coast is Macquarie Harbour. The size of this Harbour impressed our aviators. There are arguments over whether it's bigger than Sydney Harbour. The "SydHarb" unit of measure is evidently a very fluid thing.

At the entrance to the harbour are the infamous Hells Gates. This location represents a lighthouse spotter's dream. Here you have the "trifecta", three lighthouses, all in one view. There is Cape Sorell (Tasmania's second tallest light) and the two white hexagonal wooden structures on the tiny islands of Entrance and Bonnet. These could be the teeth in the mouth of Hells Gates.

Lloyd watches Steve from Seair refueling RNL at Strahan.
[Image: Winsome Bonham]

Winsome and Lloyd spent the night at Strahan. This town is the base for the Gordon River wilderness tourism. On a drive up to the famous mining centre of Queenstown, Winsome spotted some Christmas Bells in flower beside the road.

Christmas Bells flowering on the road to Queenstown.
[Image: Winsome Bonham]

Thursday 10 January ~ Strahan to King Island

The final sector of the trip was north, and back into Bass Strait.

Lloyd meeting David Brewster, the Mayor of King Island.
[Photograph: Winsome Bonham]

King Island was to be their final stopover of the trip. There are two lighthouses here, one at Currie and of course, Cape Wickham, the tallest lighthouse in Australia.

How appropriate that this great light was the final light for the trip. A very fitting way to complete "Tasmanian Lighthouses from the Air".

Lloyd and Winsome called in on Malcolm on the way home.
[Photograph: Winsome Bonham]

Lloyd returning the life raft to Concept Aviation.
[Photograph: Winsome Bonham]

1. Tasmanian Lighthouses together with more details on Winsome and Lloyd's recent trip will feature in the Winter 2002 edition of the magazine 40 Degrees South. The publication date is 6 June 2002. See www.fortysouth.com.au for details on how to get a copy.

David Hurburgh and his son in Hobart.
[Photograph: David Hurburgh]

2. David Hurburgh, the author of this series of articles "Lighthouses From the Air", has a strong attachment to lighthouses. His great-great grandfather Captain Henry Hurburgh was the first superintendent of the Goose Island Lighthouse in Bass Strait in the period 1843-1852.

The Holloway Point Lighthouse on Flinders Island.
[Photograph: Winsome Bonham]

The Low Head Lighthouse near Georgetown.
[Photograph: Winsome Bonham]

The Low Head Lead near Georgetown.
[Photograph: Winsome Bonham]

The Tamar River Front and Rear Lead Lights at Low Head.
[Photograph: Winsome Bonham]

The Mersey Bluff Lighthouse at Devonport.
[Photograph: Winsome Bonham]

The Round Hill Point near Burnie.
[Photograph: Winsome Bonham]

The Table Cape Lighthouse near Wynyard.
[Photograph: Winsome Bonham]

The Rocky Cape Lighthouse.
[Photograph: Winsome Bonham]

The Eddystone Point Lighthouse.
[Photograph: Winsome Bonham]

The Cape Tourville Lighthouse.
[Photograph: Winsome Bonham]

The Chicken Point Lighthouse on Schouten Island.
[Photograph: Winsome Bonham]

The Point Home Lookout Lighthouse near Triabunna.
[Photograph: Winsome Bonham]

The Lachlan Island Lighthouse.
[Photograph: Winsome Bonham]

The Iron Pot Lighthouse.
[Photograph: Winsome Bonham]

The Cape Bruny Lighthouse.
[Photograph: Winsome Bonham]

The Actaeon Island Lighthouse.
[Photograph: Winsome Bonham]

The Tasman Island Lighthouse.
[Photograph: Winsome Bonham]

The Blinking Billy Lighthouse on the Derwent Estuary.
[Photograph: Winsome Bonham]

The Maatsuyker Island Lighthouse.
[Photograph: Winsome Bonham]

The Low Rocky Point Lighthouse.
[Photograph: Winsome Bonham]

The Cape Sorell Lighthouse near Hells Gates.
[Photograph: Winsome Bonham]

The Entrance Island Lighthouse at Hells Gates.
[Photograph: Winsome Bonham]

The Bonnet Island Lighthouse at Hells Gates.
[Photograph: Winsome Bonham]

The Sandy Cape Lighthouse.
[Photograph: Winsome Bonham]

The Bluff Hill Lighthouse.
[Photograph: Winsome Bonham]

The Stokes Point Lighthouse On King Island.
[Photograph: Winsome Bonham]

The Currie Harbour Lighthouse On King Island.
[Photograph: Winsome Bonham]

The Cape Wickham Lighthouse on King Island.
[Photograph: Winsome Bonham]

The celebration of the 100th anniversary of the first exhibition of the current Point Lonsdale Lighthouse was blessed with a good sunny day and gentle breeze.

Commissioned on the 20th March 1902, the tower replaced the original wooden tower that had stood nearby since 1863.

The Lonsdale Lighthouse celebrates her 100th birthday.
[Image: Laurie Sharp]

Laurie Sharp and myself set up a promotional table for Lighthouses of Australia (LoA Inc) at the beginning of the pathway leading to the lighthouse. Denise Shultz also joined us to help us promote LoA Inc during the celebrations.

An early arrival was Max Huxley, son of Cyril Huxley, a former keeper from Gabo, followed by Keith Banks who was at Wilsons Promontory as well as Gabo.

Our special guest was Edwin Synnot, the grandson of the last keeper in the original wooden lighthouse, who was also the first keeper in the current Point Lonsdale tower.

Bob Coate, the great grandson of the builder of the lighthouse.
[Image: Laurie Sharp]

Denise arrives to help us promote LoA Inc.
[Image: Laurie Sharp]

The celebrations began with a picnic lunch and had a steady stream of visitors that continued through out the day.

The formal part of the day began the national anthem followed by the Mayor welcoming guests including former keepers, pilots, signalmen and their families and descendants. She also gave a brief history of the Point Lonsdale Lighthouse.

The Honourable Sherryl Garbutt, Minister for Environment and Conservation launched the <<coastal>> plan for managing reserve that the lighthouse is in. The plan a final result of many years of consultation between her department who controls the area and local residents and users.

The 100th anniversary Commemorative plaque.
[Image: Keith Banks]

Next a Commemorative plaque recognising the service of all those associated with the tower was unveiled.

The Rev. Geoff Traill, of the local Uniting Church, lead a service of thanksgiving and rededication of Point Lonsdale Lighthouse

This was an ecumenical service that included the rededication and blessing. The service was closed by Rev. Noyoun (Noah) Park from the Geelong Mission to Seafarers.

The promotional table very successful. Many visitors had either been to the site or had heard of it. Most others showed an interest in our objectives. It also gave us a point where we met and discussed issues local members of parliament, dignitaries, and the Minister, The Honourable Sherryl Garbutt.

Thanks to Laurie and Denise for helping with the LoA Inc promotional table throughout the day.