Monthly Bulletin March/April 2005 - Vol 8 No. 2

Balaclava Island - Far from your average lightstation

by Craig Gordon

As vessels enter the Fitzroy River estuary in Keppel Bay, central Queensland, travelling through the main shipping channel into Port Alma or the one-time river port of Rockhampton, an inconspicuous low lying island is passed on the port side. The dull mangrove-lined foreshore only warrants an occasional glance and few, if any comments from visitors, but to some lighthouse enthusiasts it may be of some interest.

This is Balaclava Island, which was a manned lightstation for 48 years. The island lies within the boundaries of the Port of Rockhampton and in its day was referred to as a harbour lightstation.

When most people discuss or recall their associations with lighthouses, a number of common factors come to light, and for many the isolation and lonely lifestyle probably heads the list. But taking these and other drawbacks into consideration, many of the lighthouses around the coast had at the very least pleasant outlooks being perched on headlands, and islands with some attractive coastal scenery to admire. But spare a thought for Balaclava Island, as a lightstation it was far different from any others.

The island itself is just a low lying mud island of about 10 square kilometres of perfectly flat mud at the mouth of the Fitzroy River and Raglan Creek estuaries. Strong tides run in the muddy waters around the island, which is fringed with mangroves and criss-crossed with some muddy creeks.

But the island itself is so low lying that on high spring tides it is two feet underwater.

Once you land on its muddy shores, penetrate through the fringe of mangroves and look around the bleak landscape, there is only the bare flat mud surface to be seen stretching away in the distance in all directions. Mangroves and one or two other salt-tolerant species are the only plants which can manage to survive here.

Initially, two lightkeepers with their families were stationed here in separate cottages, which were built only a foot or two above the highest tidemark. On the highest of tides, the water came right to the bottom step at their front door and the cottages were then specks in a sea of water. Then once the tide had receded the entire surface was soft bottomless mud where a person would sink to the knees at every step. The lightkeepers were then tormented for weeks on end by immense clouds of mosquitoes and sandflies, which bred up in the leftover puddles.

Walking through the mud is an effort in itself, as thick lumps stick to your feet or rubber boots, and to go a reasonable distance is tiring. For a time, the first few inches of the mud surface would dry out and be hard enough to walk about on, especially in the hot summer months. But the following month, the cycle would be repeated when the next high tides peaked. When the surface was dry, it only needed a light shower of rain to fall and it was back to mud again.

The nearest neighbours were two or three miles away by boat to the northeast at the Pilot Station and a similar distance to the west at Port Alma. The lightstation was serviced once a month by the Harbour Master's steamer from Rockhampton. Stores and mail were then delivered, but being such a desolate place, even firewood had to be delivered with the stores, and during dry spells, water had to be brought down when the rainwater tanks ran low. 

The present navigation arrangements into the Port of Rockhampton have been in place for some years now and are unlikely to be altered. But during the late 1800s and early 1900s, the navigation arrangements in Keppel Bay were continually altered and improved and the Balaclava Island Lightstation came about when a wharf was built at nearby Port Alma in 1884.

In 1882, Captain George Heath, the Portmaster of Queensland, and Captain Sykes, the local Harbourmaster, took lines and bearings to mark the main shipping channel into the Fitzroy River estuary. They determined sites on Balaclava Island for a pair of leading lights and accordingly, two large timber skeleton towers were erected. Once built, the two towers were 87 and 112 feet tall respectively and when lined up these towers were visible to ships from the Fairway Buoy (Timandra Bank buoy) or the entrance into the port.

Captain Sykes supervised the building of the towers, which was quite an undertaking. The contract was awarded to John Burton from Gladstone who owned a sawmill at that town. A tramway was first laid across the island to transport the materials, and mosquitoes were a factor to be dealt with. They seriously handicapped the work and to the men trudging through soft mud to their knees with both hands full of materials, they were simply maddening.

The towers rested on heavy timber platforms set into the ground and once finished, they were both braced with 16 wire stays which made them perfectly rigid. The larger of the two towers weighed eighty tons. A timber gangway, a mile and three quarters long was later built across the island to allow the keepers to access the lights.

A small jetty was built and the mangroves around a section of the foreshore were cleared away in an attempt to clear the mosquitoes and sandflies from around the cottages. But this was all to no avail and the first lightkeepers were tormented day and night. At meal times they had to have nets around them while they were eating at the dinner table.

Up until 1930, the station remained relatively unaltered. One year, the lights were upgraded with more powerful ones and raised up a few feet more which extended their visibility to outside of the Timandra Bank Buoy. Some erosion of the foreshore also took place and the cottages themselves had to be braced and have some minor repairs. Later, the assistant lightkeeper was removed and the station consisted of a sole lightkeeper, his family and one cottage.

By 1930, the state of the two towers gave the Harbours and Marine Department cause for concern and tenders were called for new structures. Straight away there was a setback when the successful tenderer declined the job. He had tendered for the job but hadn't been to Balaclava Island to see for himself the conditions. It was only after going there and seeing for himself what he was up against did he have second thoughts and decided that the job was not worthwhile and declined to go any further. 

The following year, fresh tenders were called, and after the successful tenderer declined the job after inspecting the site, it looked as if an impasse had been reached. The Department then offered the job to Messrs. R. Cousins of Rockhampton, one of the former tenderers, an agreement was struck and work began later in the year.

Building the new towers was to be quite an undertaking, given that there were no changes in the conditions and the nature of the site. Good quality hardwood from Maryborough was selected and was offloaded from a coastal steamer in the bay. But disaster struck straight away when the loaded punt was towed across the bay in choppy conditions. It took in water and slowly sank lower and lower, and when the pumps failed, it sank about a mile away from the landing point.

Fortunately, the Harbour Board came to the rescue and using their tug and grab dredge, the greater part of the timber, bolts and materials was saved. After recovering from this major setback, work resumed and apart from the mud, mosquitoes and having to work in water a foot deep, the work went on unimpeded.

Again, a wooden tramway was laid across the island and the material taken across in a trolley. This time, piles were driven into the mud and a platform was built on top of the piles which supported the towers.

About fifteen thousand feet of timber and a ton of bolts went into building the new towers, which took five men and three months to complete. It was not pleasant work. It was very dirty and the men were not sorry when it was completed. Being such a lonely place, the one consolation was that the lightkeeper had a wireless, which enabled the men to keep in touch with the outside world. 

The new towers were a few feet smaller and were built in front of the old ones. Once the lantern apparatus was installed and commissioned, both the old towers were toppled to make way for the new ones.

This also marked the end of Balaclava Island as a manned lightstation. The new lights burnt acetylene gas and were unattended. The gas cylinders could last for lengthy intervals before they needed to be replaced and the lightkeepers were taken off a month later. The cottage was then sold to the Harbour Board and removed later in the year.

Department of Harbour and Marine personnel from either the Pilot Station or at Port Alma then maintained the lights. The crews from both places then came to loathe the backbreaking job of having to physically manhandle the gas cylinders over a mile across the island by hand.

There's not much to say about family life on Balaclava. The living conditions were basic and the domestic chores kept the women fully occupied. Those with children were said to have been kept busy washing a lot of mud-stained clothes. Everyone fished at one time or another in the nearby creeks where fish, crabs and prawns were caught and occasionally a crocodile was seen lurking about. On very rare occasions when the conditions were right, some keen people rowed across from Port Alma or the Pilot Station to visit.

If the children weren't occupied with correspondence lessons, they ran amuck on the mud flats, fished and checked the crab pots. The men had to be up for part of the night and slept for some of the day, but there was maintenance to be done and always chores around the houses.

Paddy Cullen was the last lightkeeper at Balaclava Island. He lived here with his family of eight children and it was while he was stationed here that the only eventful story about life at Balaclava appears to have taken place. A cyclone struck the area in February 1931 and the resultant storm surge coincided with very high tides and covered the entire island. Paddy and his large family, together with the goats and chickens, gathered in the cottage and sat out the cyclone, praying that the cottage wouldn't float away.

There would have been few regrets among the families when they left the place but incredibly there is record of one lightkeeper, a Mr R.J. Graham, who served continually at Balaclava Island for in excess of 28 years. Others that served at Balaclava Island were families by the names of Anderson, Russell, Neill, Gray and Kelly.

Today, Mrs Eileen Webb (neé Cullen) is the last surviving person who can recall life at Balaclava Island. Though Eileen was only a very young child at the time, she does recall the cottage they lived in. Her other more vivid memory of the place is remembering her older brothers playing and sliding down the mud banks on the foreshore in empty kerosene cases.

Both Eileen's father and grandfather worked on lightstations in Keppel Bay and she kept the family lightkeeper tradition continuing by later marrying Alf Webb, a local man who serviced the lights in the Fitzroy River.

Mrs Lorna Smith, a descendant of another Keppel Bay lightkeeper also has an interest in Balaclava Island. Both an uncle and aunt of hers came from the families of lightkeepers around Keppel Bay. The lightkeepers around Keppel Bay all knew of each other, with the common link between them the stores boat. Lorna is certain that her uncle and aunt met while one of them was either going to or from town on the stores boat. Shortly after they were married, her uncle was appointed to Balaclava Island as a lightkeeper and the newlyweds set up house there with their first-born child.

Of all the lightkeepers, their families and workmen who spent time at Balaclava Island, it hasn't been recorded what their comments and thoughts were about the mosquitoes and sandflies that they had to live and work with, but I'm sure they wouldn't meet the approval of an insect lover. 

Today at Balaclava Island, some stumps mark the sites where the lightkeepers cottage and the long timber gangway once stood. But the same two large wooden towers that were built in 1932 still stand and continue to point out the entrance channel to the port of Rockhampton.

Footnote: It is sadly noted that in between when this story was researched by Craig Gordon, and published on the LoA Inc website, Mrs Eileen Webb and Mrs Ailsa Parker (neé Anderson) both passed away. Craig said that he was "glad that he took the time to see these people when I did and compile the story". Lighthouses of Australia Inc is pleased to be able to publish this story and accompanying photographs, and thanks everyone involved for their contribution.

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