Lighthouses of Australia Inc

Early days on Troubridge Shoal Image: LoA Archives

The Light of Troubridge Shoal

Denise Shultz

Troubridge Shoal was first noted by Matthew Flinders in 1802, long before any settlement or development of the future South Australia began. He described it as a drying sand flat and named it after Sir Thomas Troubridge, a distinguished British Navy officer. He had no way of knowing that the “shoal” was rapidly growing in size and would soon become an island.

More than three decades later, the first settlers arrived and started colonizing the shores of Spencer Gulf and the Golf St. Vincent. As the colony grew in population so did the maritime traffic and inevitably, the number of ships that got grounded on the imprecisely charted shoal. Since it lay directly on route of ships rounding Yorke Peninsula on their way to Port Adelaide, Troubridge Shoal was the cause of many shipwrecks. 

The lighthouse was completed late in 1855 but the cottages were not ready until January 1856. The first keepers and their families arrived on the island on January 8th aboard schooner Yatala. The light was commissioned on the 1st February 1856, with the total cost of £8242 for the lighthouse and £1154 for the cottages, the total of £9396, almost twice the original estimate. The tower was painted a stone colour that looked like a sail during the day. The light, visible at a distance of 10 miles flashed every three seconds. Trinity House took over the operation of the light until the formation of the Marine Board in Adelaide in early 1860. 

No logbook records survived from the lighthouse’s commissioning till 1863 but from then on they show that there were plenty of dramas to keep life interesting. For example, a baby boy was born in the second keeper’s cottage to Mrs. Johnson, a visitor, in January 1864. On another occasion, third keeper T. Robin was too drunk to keep the watch and when the second keeper Omond did not report the incident to the head keeper Main and just took his watch himself, he was reprimanded by him. Tobin continued to drink until, eventually, he was sent to Port MacDonnell lighthouse. On the 26th March 1867 the head keeper Omond and his wife, together with the second keeper Tapley, were lost at sea while sailing to Edithburgh (read the full story in the Prism).

During the first 30 years of its life, high tides continually eroded the unstable island, which was originally covered by a low bush. The keepers recognized the importance of vegetation to keep the shifting sand movement to a minimum and planted a lot of bushes and trees in their gardens, but their attempts to stabilize the ground were not very successful and even caused bad disagreements between them. In 1879 head keeper Bartlett criticized the second keeper Wells for allowing his children to cut the brushwood for burning. The row caused a rift between the two men and in the end, after committing another bad deed, Wells was dismissed. Other efforts to stop the loss of sand were no less futile. The breakwater was built in 1856 to no avail and ten years later the lighthouse foundations had to be strengthened. No further stabilising work was done on either lighthouse or the keepers quarters until 1902, when the earthquake struck the island and completely wrecked the lighting apparatus, destroyed lamps and reflectors and started a severe fire in the lantern room. The foundations of the cottages were also severely damaged and had to be finally rebuilt in 1904.

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