Lightships and Lighthouses

by Frederick Arthur Ambrose Talbot

The most southerly light upon the New South Wales coastline is that at Green Cape, a few miles north of Cape Howe. As at the other stations, three keepers are maintained, being accommodated, with their families, in roomy cottages; while a small patch of land is turned to agricultural advantage, cows, horses, etc., being maintained by the men. The most easterly light on the Australian continent is at Cape Byron. This light is perched on a dangerous cliff, which drops almost vertically into the water 371 feet below; but it is within touch of civilization, a winding road having been cut down the flank of the promontory on the land side into the neighbouring town of Byron Bay, so that the tradesmen’s carts are able to make their rounds up the cliff to satisfy the varied wants of the wardens of the light. One of the loneliest lights is that on Norah Head—Bungaree Norah it is called—and this is also the latest light erected by the State, as it dates from 1903. Although somewhat out of the way, it is not to be compared with some of the isolated British, Canadian, and United States lights, being, in fact, no more inaccessible or lonely than most localities in the Australian Bush.

Sugar-Loaf Point is one of the most serious danger spots along the shoreline, but is now well guarded with a fine lighthouse planted on its summit, the welcome rays of which are visible for many miles out to sea. The light-keepers here had a surprising discovery one morning in 1910. The Satara fouled the point and was wrecked, though fortunately her passengers were succoured by passing steamers. On this vessel at the time of the disaster there was a staghound, and although, when the rescues were effected, search for the animal was made high and low on the wreck, no signs of it could be seen. It was given up as lost. Some days later the lighthouse-keepers ventured to the beach below to have a look round, and to their astonishment a staghound come bounding towards them, yelping with joy at the sight of a human face. For a dog to be in such a lonely spot was a strange circumstance, but at last it was surmised to be the animal which was missed on the Satara. Apparently the animal clung to the crippled craft for some time, and then, realizing that the ship was abandoned, dived overboard and swam ashore. It fraternized with the keepers, and for some time kept them company at the station.

One of the worst wrecks which have happened upon the shores of New South Wales was that of the steamer Ly-ce-moon. By some inexplicable means the ship got out of her course on a fine Sunday night, and came to grief off Green Cape. The lighthouse-keepers at once hurried to the rescue, the hapless passengers, as they were got ashore, being tended at the station until they were removed to their homes. The lighthouse-keepers worked tremendously hard, but they were not entirely successful. Although by herculean effort they brought a large number of people to safety, there is a small fenced enclosure in the Bush behind the station where lie the remains of some fifty persons who lost their lives in the wreck, and whose bodies were washed ashore.

While New South Wales has a comparatively easy length of coastline to protect, the neighbouring colony of New Zealand, on the other hand, has a wild, forbidding, and extensive stretch of shore. Up to the present the Government has concentrated its energies upon the illumination of the busiest reaches of water, and has planted prominent outposts at the respective extreme tips of the twin islands. During the financial year ending March 31, 1912, sixteen wrecks occurred in these seas, of which six were total losses. The most ill-famed corner appears to be the large sweeping indentation at the southern end of North Island, lying between Cape Egmont and Wellington, particularly in the vicinity of Wanganui, since this stretch of coast claimed five victims. Cook’s Strait, which is dangerous to navigators, is well protected, however, the most prominent beacon being that on Stephens Island, its group-flashes, occurring every thirty seconds, being particularly powerful, and having a range of thirty-two miles.

THE CAPE BYRON LIGHTHOUSE, NEW SOUTH WALES.

THE MACQUARIE LIGHTHOUSE, SOUTH HEAD OF SYDNEY HARBOUR, NEW SOUTH WALES.

The original tower, erected in 1816, was the first lighthouse built in the State. In 1882 it made way for the present magnificent station.

The Marine Department maintains thirty-two coastal lights, of which twenty-two are on the mainland, and ten situate on islands off the coast. They are of a varied description, ranging from powerful lights of the first order to beacons dependent upon dissolved acetylene, stored in cylinders of sufficient capacity to keep the light gleaming for sixty days continuously. Some of the places in which the warning lights are placed are exceedingly lonely and inaccessible, so that the perfection of the unattended light has solved a complex problem, and has enabled many terrible stretches of forbidding coast to be well indicated.