Lighthouses of Australia Inc

• Knitted lighthouse chair
• Lighthouse postcards
• Norah Head Lighthouse visit

Knitted lighthouse chair

Armchair cover made from a collection of toys knitted by a lighthouse keeper Note the real cat asleep in the middle. Photograph: Owen Davies

Ahoy Denise and crew:

I found this item at an antique shop where the story goes like this:

The proprietor bought it from a dealer in Tasmania who said that it was knitted by a female lighthouse keeper. She had knitted toys for all the girls and boys she knew, then covered this armchair to enjoy.

Who was it that had such imagination to pass the boring hours at a manned light? Which light could this have been where you would be so bored to have the time to knit all of this?

I'd really like to write the story for the kids at the school where I teach.

All the best to you all,

Owen Davies
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Hi Owen,

That is one remarkable chair!

I must say that I have never seen it before, but the story seems believable because it was not unusual even for lightkeepers themselves to do knitting while watching the light. However, male lightkeeper would probably not produce such an elaborate handiwork, so I am inclined to think that it was more likely a woman, the keepers wife , who produced it as there were officially no female lightkeepers.

Unfortunately, I do not have any more details. However, we can put the picture of the chair in the Bulletin and the Prism and since we have a lot of members and subscribers who are connected to lighthouses one way or the other, there might very well be someone who recognises it and who will give you the info you want.

Regards

Denise Shultz
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Lighthouse postcards

Hello,

Lighthouse postcards and other collectibles Photograph: Kristie Eggleston

I would like to find out where I can purchase postcards of the various lighthouses around Australia, as I have only been able to find one main photo of the lighthouse at Pt Adelaide, a Kangaroo Island card with a small photo of the Cape Willoughby Lighthouse and various other postcards.

I am a member of a postcard group that trades or swaps postcards all over the world and I'd like to have various ones of lighthouses in Australia to place on my postcard site for people who access the site to view. 

If possible can you give me a price of 5 different lighthouses, 4 of each, I am not fussed which ones as long as it portrays a nice view of that lighthouse.

Thank you for your time.

Joanne
 Email Joanne

Hi Joanne,

Mersey Bluff Lighthouse, Tasmania postcard Postcard: Unknown photographer

Thank you for your query regarding Australian lighthouse postcards.

Unfortunately, Lighthouses of Australia Inc does not have postcards for sale, nor am I aware of any central resource where postcards of lighthouses can be purchased - we would be interested too if we knew of somewhere! We are looking at producing postcards in the future, but at this stage have nothing available.

Postcards, and lighthouse collectibles in general, are only available in Australia at tourist outlets nearby, or from the management within the lighthouse grounds. For obvious reasons, they generally only stock items that relate to the nearest lighthouse(s). The only way to build up a sizeable collection of lighthouse collectibles is to visit each lighthouse, and all the tourist information centres, bookshops and newsagents near that lighthouse. Almost all lighthouses that I have been to around Australia, I have collected a postcard from, but only by having been there myself. These sort of places do not have online stores or mail order facilities.

Great Ocean Road lighthouses postcard Postcard: Neil Leed, Travellers Notes

There are some individual photographers who have postcards of their work available, such as Neil Leed, who specialises in the Great Ocean Road in Victoria, but again, his work is generally only available in the region that he specialises in. John Ibbotson, who has photographed most of Australia's lighthouses, may be branching into postcards at some stage in the future, but at present is concentrating on the marketing of his books.

Unfortunately, I cannot think of any other way you might be able to source lighthouse postcards. If you do discover somewhere that postcards can be sourced without having to buy them in person, we would love to know. 

Warm regards,

Kristie Eggleston
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Norah Head Lighthouse visit

Norah Head Lighthouse open for tours Photograph: Roz Felton

I am a member of Lighthouses of Australia and I am also a Justice of the Peace, being a member of the New South Wales Justices' Association. In May of this year, the Association held their annual conference at Long Jetty, near The Entrance, New South Wales. Their programme was to have the get-together at Long Jetty on the Saturday with an evening dinner, followed by a tour of the Norah Head Lighthouse on the Sunday.

View from the balcony at Norah Head Lighthouse Photograph: Roz Felton

I was unable to attend the Saturday conference but I was able to attend the tour of the lighthouse on the Sunday. I drove for about 1 1/2 hours on a very cold Newcastle morning, arriving at Norah Head about 10am to beautiful sunshine and a most pleasant day.

I met up with the other JPs who were an extremely nice bunch of people. We walked to the lighthouse where we were met by the very informative volunteers and they couldn't do enough to help us and answer our questions. As there were quite a few of us, they arranged three blocks of tours, ours being the last of the lot, so to speak.

The lantern room Photograph: Roz Felton

Even though I have always wanted to explore the inside of a lighthouse, this was my first opportunity to do so. There were 96 steps to climb but, being as excited as I was, I really didn't count them, and before I knew it, we were at the top of the lighthouse. I have a great fear of heights and once the guide opened the door to the outer balcony, my legs literally went to jelly. However, I braved my fears and stepped out onto the balcony, very hesitantly, to enjoy the most magnificent views of the Central Coast and surrounds from this wonderful structure, even being able to see the far distant lighthouse at Barrenjoey.

We learned of the history and the upkeep of the lighthouse, which, like most, is amazingly high due to the climatic conditions, and also learned of the recent working bee to keep the lighthouse looking ship-shape.

Central coast views Photograph: Roz Felton

One of the volunteers is a great grand-son of the original lighthouse keeper and it was fascinating to listen to his stories from the past. He told of his younger days there including his education, and said he has many photos of days gone by and he was in the process of writing a book about his life at Norah Head. He said he hadn't progressed very far as he thought not many people would be interested in his story and I assured him that a great number of people out there would be extremely interested in hearing his story once it was published. Hopefully, this will come to fruition sometime soon.

I had a wonderful day, took a zillion photos, met some wonderful people, and on talking with the volunteers after the lighthouse climb, vowed to re-visit this wonderful Australian structure in the very near future.

Roz Felton
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