TO THE HONOURABLE THE COLONIAL TREASURER.
Department of Ports and Harbours,
Brisbane, 26th August, 1891.
Sir,—I have the honour to submit, for your information, the following Report concerning this Department for the past year:—
I assumed charge on the 1st July, 1890, and found that the heavy gales and floods experienced in January of the same year had most seriously affected several of the dredged cuttings of the Brisbane, Mary, Burnett, and Fitzroy Rivers. In some places the Brisbane River had silted up to such an extent that there were fully 18 inches less water than before the flood. This, however, only proved a temporary inconvenience, as the dredges soon restored the cuttings to their original depths. I also found that considerable changes had taken place in the formation of the banks at the northern entrance to Moreton Bay, necessitating the removal—to make the lead effective—of Tangaluma Light (which had only been established in 1885), also the removal (for the fourth time) of the Yellow Patch Light, and the building of two new cottages for the lightkeepers. Owing to the encroachment of the sea, it had also been found necessary to remove Comboyuro Point Lighthouse and the keeper's cottage some 200 feet further inland. This work was accomplished by the Inspector, Mr. H. L. Pethebridge. The floating beacon which marked the northern entrance to the port had been ashore on Bribie Island for some time, but, during the first interval of settled westerly weather, she was floated and brought to Brisbane to be repaired and supplied with new moorings, after which she was on the 8th August replaced in her former position, and by the end of October the works of the Department generally, which had suffered in the early portion of the year, were restored.
In January and February of the present year another series of heavy gales was experienced along the whole coast of the Colony, and on the 6th, 7th, and 8th of June a gale of unusual severity, accompanied by torrents of rain, swept along the coast from Bowen southwards, causing heavy seas and abnormally high tides. Such unfavourable weather, of course, occasioned considerable loss to the Department, a great number of buoys being driven from their moorings (some lost altogether), and beacons and other plant receiving a large amount of damage.