Wadjemup Lighthouse
Encyclopedia
Completed in 1849, the original 20 metres (65.6 ft) Wadjemup Lighthouse (also known as Rottnest Island Light Station) was Western Australia
's first stone lighthouse
and was built to provide a safer sailing passage for ships to Fremantle Port and the Swan River Colony
.
A second and larger replacement tower was built on the same site in 1896. It is the fourth oldest extant lighthouse in Western Australia and was Australia's first rotating beam lighthouse. A shipwreck which was partly caused by poor communications and misunderstood signals from the lighthouse prompted the construction of another lighthouse
on the island in 1900.
is the largest and northernmost of several islands near the Port of Fremantle. It is 19 kilometres (11.8 mi) from the mouth of the Swan River
and is generally the first land sighted by ships arriving from the west. The island is 11 kilometres (6.8 mi) long, and 4.5 kilometres (2.8 mi) at its widest point with a total land area of 19 sqkm. The lighthouse site is at the highest point of the island at Wadjemup Hill, with the tower base 45 metres (147.6 ft) above sea level. It is 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) west of the Thomson Bay settlement and about 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) south-west of the Geordie Bay settlement.
Between 1837 and 1843, Commander John Clements Wickham
led an expedition in HMS Beagle
with Lieutenant John Lort Stokes
to chart sections of the Australian coastline. During the voyage Fremantle was visited seven times and in the course of one of these visits on 25 March 1840, Stokes wrote in his journal
In October 1840, Surveyor-General John Septimus Roe
, together with Wickham and Stokes published Sailing Directions for the Navigation About Rottnest Island. The document appeared in the Government Gazette and included
Rottnest had been used as a prison for aborigines since 1838.
Superintendent of Public Works Henry Trigg
designed the first lighthouse and laid the foundation stone in January 1842. Perth
builder Bayley Maycock oversaw construction of the tower at a cost of £500 and used labour provided by the prisoners and locally quarried limestone
. Construction seemed to be quite protracted for reasons which are unclear—possibly because of resistance by the Prisoner's Superintendent Henry Vincent who disliked outside meddling on the island.
The first keeper, Samuel Thomas, was appointed on 18 January 1849—two years before the light was lit. Thomas's duties initially included operating a system of signalling using flags and flares to indicate the arrival of ships. Different signals and flag combinations indicated ships to the north or south of the island and these were monitored from a pilot's lookout at Bathurst Point on the North-Eastern extremity of the island and then relayed to Arthur Head
at Fremantle. Four flagpoles were built at the lighthouse for signalling. The flags were about 9 feet (2.7 m) square. When confirmation of a ship's arrival was received, the lookout man at Arthur head raised a blue flag for the information of Fremantle residents.
Vincent wrote to Colonial Secretary Henry Revett Bland on 25 August 1849, that "... the Tower of the Litehous is all finesh...". The conclusion of construction coincided with the closure of the island prison establishment and the removal of inmates back to the mainland. The aboriginal prison population did return however, between 1855 and 1931.
The tower's completed height was 3 metres (10 ft) shorter than the design, and commissioning was finally completed in 1851 when the revolving lamp and clockwork mechanism were fitted. Unusually for the period as most lighthouse lamps and mechanisms came from England
, the machinery for the revolving catoptric light was designed and built in Fremantle
. Assistant Surveyor-General Augustus Gregory
designed the mechanism which comprised two sets of three oil burning lamps, each with a silvered parabolic reflector
. In 1850, a contract was let to Alfred Carson to construct the revolving apparatus at a cost of £43. The official opening on 1 June 1851 coincided with the twenty-second anniversary of the Colony and the opening of another lighthouse at Arthur Head.
The light was visible for 18 nautical miles (33.3 km) and had a characteristic five second flash followed by a 55 second eclipse. The entire apparatus rotated once every two minutes. It was operated by a clockwork mechanism and the lamps consumed 3 gallons of coconut oil
per week. In 1862, colza oil
and later in the century, kerosene
were used as fuel. The octagonal lantern was 3.4 metres (11.2 ft) high, and glazed with 160 panes of 3/8 in thick glass.
The Argus
reported on 31 July 1851
The now demolished lighthouse-keeper's quarters and a store room were constructed nearby.
Thomas Carter succeeded Samuel Thomas as keeper in January 1853. The following year, on hearing that a vacancy for the keeper's position had occurred, John Duffield Senior wrote to the Colonial Secretary on 17 January asking that his son Samuel be considered. Governor
Charles Fitzgerald
approved Samuel Duffield's appointment as the third Rottnest lighthouse keeper the following day. Duffield, his wife and four children took up residence with an initial pay of ₤44 per year rising to ₤88 per year at his retirement in 1879 with a pension of ₤33 6d 8d. Duffield was the longest serving lighthouse keeper at Rottnest. The lighthouse keeper lived an isolated existence, being required to be on duty at all hours. This would have been exacerbated by the absence until 1866 of a permanent road between the Thomson Bay settlement and the lighthouse.
In 1863 the Admiralty
issued its first publication of the west coast of Australia in The Australia Directory Vol. 3. The light was described as revolving and flashing for five seconds in every minute, and that it could be seen for 20 nautical miles (37 km) on a clear day at an elevation of 18 feet (5.5 m). As to signalling, The Directory stated
Repairs to the tower were made in 1879 and a new lens from England was ordered the following year. These works totalling £100 were approved in the Legislative Council in 1880. In March 1881 a new first order dioptric lamp was fitted and in 1887 a locally made revolving apparatus was installed. However, the Harbour and Light Department described the light as being "behind the times". A first order holophotal lantern with an estimated cost of £3,900 was ordered in 1891. The same year £6,000 was placed in the Government's budget estimates for a new lighthouse which had been under consideration for some time.
, Sir John Forrest
and included the placement of a glass bottle in a niche in the stone, containing newspapers, coins and copies of plans of the new lighthouse. It was designed by British engineer William Douglass
with construction overseen by the colony's Engineer-in-Chief, C.Y. O'Connor. Douglass also designed the Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse
which was built between 1895 and 1896. The Leeuwin lighthouse was opened in December 1896.
Construction of the new 38.7 metres (127 ft) tower alongside the original lighthouse was completed in 1896 and on the occasion of its opening on 17 March The West Australian
newspaper reported
The basement octagon of the tower is 13 metres (42.7 ft) across and 1.8 metres (5.9 ft) thick, being formed from 230 cubic metres (8,122.4 cu ft) of concrete. The superstructure is 34 metres (111.5 ft) above this and comprises 760 cubic metres (26,839.1 cu ft) of hard limestone. The outer diameter is about 9 metres (29.5 ft) at ground level and the walls are 1.4 metres (4.6 ft) thick. At the top of the tower the inner diameter is 3.4 metres (11.2 ft) and the walls excluding capping are 0.9 metres (3 ft) thick. The lantern house is 7.6 metres (24.9 ft) high. Stone for the new tower was transported to the site from a quarry at Nancy Cove, about 1.6 kilometre (0.994196378639691 mi) South-West, along a tramway built for the task.
The light characteristic was initially a flash for 3 seconds and a 17 second eclipse. There being eight lens panels, the apparatus revolved every 2 minutes 40 seconds. The new tower almost doubled the height of the previous one and accommodated a more powerful 45,000 candle power lamp which was visible for 23 nautical miles (42.6 km).
At the opening ceremony the Governor
Sir Gerard Smith referred to the lighting of the lamp as "this new light symbolises the progress and vigour of the colony". At the same ceremony, Premier Forrest said
The existing lighthouse keeper's house was built at about the same time and the old tower was demolished a short time after the new tower was commissioned. The head keeper at the time of the opening was William Brown and his assistant keepers were David Mitchinson and David Baird.
In the year ended June 1908 the wick burners were replaced by a Chance incandescent petroleum vapour burner and the light output was increased from 45,000 to 200,000 candle power. This was increased to 327,000 candles in February 1927 and the current mercury float pedestal and clockwork (now electrified) mechanism was installed in March 1929. At the same time, the light characteristic was changed to a 0.4 second flash with a 4.6 second eclipse. The revolution time was thus 40 seconds.
Electrification was done on 15 January 1936 and power increased to 1,300,000 candles. The light characteristic changed to 0.2 second flash with a 7.3 second eclipse. The apparatus revolution time became one minute.
was wrecked off a reef to the north of the island. The ship had sailed from San Francisco with a cargo of timber and was en-route to Fremantle when it was seen by the lighthouse keeper at 4:30 p.m. about 30 kilometres (18.6 mi) distant. Conditions were stormy with blinding rain. The keeper signalled news of the sighting to the head pilot at Thompson Bay who readied himself and his pilot boat to go to the assistance of the ship once it signalled for a pilot.
At 6:45 p.m. the ship had still not signalled for a pilot and the assistant lighthouse keeper challenged the ship by lighting a flare-up at the base of the lighthouse, meaning for the ship to stand off until the pilot had arrived. The captain however mistook the signal as being from a pilot boat itself and that it was the international code signifying that the ship should continue towards it (the pilot boat). He unwittingly sailed straight towards the shallow reefs which surround the island. 11 men including the captain drowned and the 68 metres (223.1 ft) 1167 tonnes (1,148.6 LT) ship was lost.
Another ship, the Carlisle Castle, was also lost in the same storm, but on the southern side of the island. Between 24 and 26 people, all on board, were drowned. There was no indication of the lighthouse having played a role in its loss.
A second Rottnest lighthouse at Bathurst Point
was built in 1900 on the north-east of the island partly in response to the incident, as well as other shipping disasters in the area.
. The last lighthouse keeper left the island in 1990.
It is a popular tourist site with volunteer guides offering hourly tours of the precinct and to the top of the tower with information on the site's history. There are 155 steps to the top and the tour offers spectacular views of the coastline around the island and back to the mainland around the Perth metropolitan area.
The lantern is a 3.66 metres (12 ft) diameter Chance Brothers
device with a 920 millimetres (36.2 in) focal radius 8-panel catadioptric
lens from the same company. It rotates once every 60 seconds on a mercury
float pedestal. It is powered by 240-volt electricity from the island's mains supply and has a 2.5kVa diesel backup system.
The light is 80.5 metres (264.1 ft) above sea level and has a nominal range of 22 nautical miles (40.7 km) and geographical range of 20 nautical miles (37 km). Its current light characteristic is a single flash of 0.07 seconds every 7.5 seconds with an eclipse of 7.43 seconds.
Western Australia
Western Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...
's first stone lighthouse
Lighthouse
A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses or, in older times, from a fire, and used as an aid to navigation for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways....
and was built to provide a safer sailing passage for ships to Fremantle Port and the Swan River Colony
Swan River Colony
The Swan River Colony was a British settlement established in 1829 on the Swan River, in Western Australia. The name was a pars pro toto for Western Australia. In 1832, the colony was officially renamed Western Australia, when the colony's founding Lieutenant-Governor, Captain James Stirling,...
.
A second and larger replacement tower was built on the same site in 1896. It is the fourth oldest extant lighthouse in Western Australia and was Australia's first rotating beam lighthouse. A shipwreck which was partly caused by poor communications and misunderstood signals from the lighthouse prompted the construction of another lighthouse
Bathurst Lighthouse
Bathurst Lighthouse is one of two lighthouses on Rottnest Island, the other being Wadjemup Lighthouse. It is located on Bathurst Point, in the north east of the island, and was activated in 1900...
on the island in 1900.
Location selection and obelisk
Rottnest IslandRottnest Island
Rottnest Island is located off the coast of Western Australia, near Fremantle. It is called Wadjemup by the Noongar people, meaning "place across the water". The island is long, and at its widest point with a total land area of . It is classified as an A Class Reserve and is managed by the...
is the largest and northernmost of several islands near the Port of Fremantle. It is 19 kilometres (11.8 mi) from the mouth of the Swan River
Swan River (Western Australia)
The Swan River estuary flows through the city of Perth, in the south west of Western Australia. Its lower reaches are relatively wide and deep, with few constrictions, while the upper reaches are usually quite narrow and shallow....
and is generally the first land sighted by ships arriving from the west. The island is 11 kilometres (6.8 mi) long, and 4.5 kilometres (2.8 mi) at its widest point with a total land area of 19 sqkm. The lighthouse site is at the highest point of the island at Wadjemup Hill, with the tower base 45 metres (147.6 ft) above sea level. It is 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) west of the Thomson Bay settlement and about 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) south-west of the Geordie Bay settlement.
Between 1837 and 1843, Commander John Clements Wickham
John Clements Wickham
John Clements Wickham was a naval officer, magistrate and administrator. He was a Lieutenant on HMS Beagle during her second survey mission from 1831 to 1836, which took the young naturalist Charles Darwin on what became the subject of his book, The Voyage of the Beagle...
led an expedition in HMS Beagle
HMS Beagle
HMS Beagle was a Cherokee-class 10-gun brig-sloop of the Royal Navy. She was launched on 11 May 1820 from the Woolwich Dockyard on the River Thames, at a cost of £7,803. In July of that year she took part in a fleet review celebrating the coronation of King George IV of the United Kingdom in which...
with Lieutenant John Lort Stokes
John Lort Stokes
Admiral John Lort Stokes, RN was an officer in the Royal Navy who travelled on HMS Beagle for close to eighteen years.Stokes grew up in Scotchwell near Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire. He joined the Navy on 20 September 1824...
to chart sections of the Australian coastline. During the voyage Fremantle was visited seven times and in the course of one of these visits on 25 March 1840, Stokes wrote in his journal
We moved the ship to Rottnest Island, to collect a little material for the chart and select a hill for the site of a lighthouse. The one we chose lies towards the South east end of the island bearing N76°W (true) twelve miles and a quarter from the .
In October 1840, Surveyor-General John Septimus Roe
John Septimus Roe
John Septimus Roe was the first Surveyor-General of Western Australia. He was a renowned explorer, and a Member of Western Australia's Legislative and Executive Councils for nearly 40 years.-Early life:...
, together with Wickham and Stokes published Sailing Directions for the Navigation About Rottnest Island. The document appeared in the Government Gazette and included
Rottnest Island ... may now be distinguished from the mainland and Garden IslandGarden Island (Western Australia)Garden Island is a slender island about ten kilometres long and one and a half kilometres wide, lying about off the Western Australian coast, to which it is now linked by a man-made causeway....
by a white obeliskObeliskAn obelisk is a tall, four-sided, narrow tapering monument which ends in a pyramid-like shape at the top, and is said to resemble a petrified ray of the sun-disk. A pair of obelisks usually stood in front of a pylon...
, 15ft in height, with a pole in the middle, of the same length, which has recently been erected on its highest part near the centre of the island. This sea-mark, being elevated about 157ft above sea level, may be seen from a ship's deck in clear weather at the distance of 7 or 8 leagues, and will shortly give place to a lighthouse of greater elevation. Its position, according to HMS Beagle, is lat. 32d 0m 14s South, long. 115d 26m 6s East.
Original tower
Stokes returned to Fremantle in the Beagle in April 1843 and wrote
In the forenoon of the 23rd we saw the lighthouse of ; and regarded it with great interest, as the work of the aborigines imprisoned at the island.
Rottnest had been used as a prison for aborigines since 1838.
Superintendent of Public Works Henry Trigg
Henry Trigg
Henry Trigg was the Superintendent of Public Works in Western Australia from 1838 to 1851.Trigg Beach in the norther suburbs of Perth was named after him....
designed the first lighthouse and laid the foundation stone in January 1842. Perth
Perth, Western Australia
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia and the fourth most populous city in Australia. The Perth metropolitan area has an estimated population of almost 1,700,000....
builder Bayley Maycock oversaw construction of the tower at a cost of £500 and used labour provided by the prisoners and locally quarried limestone
Limestone
Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....
. Construction seemed to be quite protracted for reasons which are unclear—possibly because of resistance by the Prisoner's Superintendent Henry Vincent who disliked outside meddling on the island.
The first keeper, Samuel Thomas, was appointed on 18 January 1849—two years before the light was lit. Thomas's duties initially included operating a system of signalling using flags and flares to indicate the arrival of ships. Different signals and flag combinations indicated ships to the north or south of the island and these were monitored from a pilot's lookout at Bathurst Point on the North-Eastern extremity of the island and then relayed to Arthur Head
Round House
The Round House is the oldest building still standing in Western Australia. It is located at Arthur Head in Fremantle, and recent heritage assessments and appraisals of the precinct of the Round House incorporate Arthur Head....
at Fremantle. Four flagpoles were built at the lighthouse for signalling. The flags were about 9 feet (2.7 m) square. When confirmation of a ship's arrival was received, the lookout man at Arthur head raised a blue flag for the information of Fremantle residents.
Vincent wrote to Colonial Secretary Henry Revett Bland on 25 August 1849, that "... the Tower of the Litehous is all finesh...". The conclusion of construction coincided with the closure of the island prison establishment and the removal of inmates back to the mainland. The aboriginal prison population did return however, between 1855 and 1931.
The tower's completed height was 3 metres (10 ft) shorter than the design, and commissioning was finally completed in 1851 when the revolving lamp and clockwork mechanism were fitted. Unusually for the period as most lighthouse lamps and mechanisms came from England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, the machinery for the revolving catoptric light was designed and built in Fremantle
Fremantle, Western Australia
Fremantle is a city in Western Australia, located at the mouth of the Swan River. Fremantle Harbour serves as the port of Perth, the state capital. Fremantle was the first area settled by the Swan River colonists in 1829...
. Assistant Surveyor-General Augustus Gregory
Augustus Gregory
Sir Augustus Charles Gregory KCMG. was an English-born Australian explorer. Between 1846 and 1858 he undertook four major expeditions.-Early years:...
designed the mechanism which comprised two sets of three oil burning lamps, each with a silvered parabolic reflector
Parabolic reflector
A parabolic reflector is a reflective device used to collect or project energy such as light, sound, or radio waves. Its shape is that of a circular paraboloid, that is, the surface generated by a parabola revolving around its axis...
. In 1850, a contract was let to Alfred Carson to construct the revolving apparatus at a cost of £43. The official opening on 1 June 1851 coincided with the twenty-second anniversary of the Colony and the opening of another lighthouse at Arthur Head.
The light was visible for 18 nautical miles (33.3 km) and had a characteristic five second flash followed by a 55 second eclipse. The entire apparatus rotated once every two minutes. It was operated by a clockwork mechanism and the lamps consumed 3 gallons of coconut oil
Coconut oil
Coconut oil is an edible oil extracted from the kernel or meat of matured coconuts harvested from the coconut palm . Throughout the tropical world, it has provided the primary source of fat in the diets of millions of people for generations. It has various applications in food, medicine, and industry...
per week. In 1862, colza oil
Colza oil
Colza oil is a nondrying oil obtained from the seeds of Brassica rapa, var. oleifera, a variety of the plant that produces turnips. Colza is extensively cultivated in France, Belgium, the United States, the Netherlands and Germany and Poland. In France, especially, the extraction of the oil is an...
and later in the century, kerosene
Kerosene
Kerosene, sometimes spelled kerosine in scientific and industrial usage, also known as paraffin or paraffin oil in the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, Ireland and South Africa, is a combustible hydrocarbon liquid. The name is derived from Greek keros...
were used as fuel. The octagonal lantern was 3.4 metres (11.2 ft) high, and glazed with 160 panes of 3/8 in thick glass.
The Argus
The Argus (Australia)
The Argus was a morning daily newspaper in Melbourne established in 1846 and closed in 1957. Widely known as a conservative newspaper for most of its history, it adopted a left leaning approach from 1949...
reported on 31 July 1851
The light will consist of two groups of three powerful lamps each; the whole revolving once in two minutes, and showing a flash of light of five seconds' duration every minute, with intervals of 55 seconds of darkness. The centre of the light is 197 feet above high water level, and at the height of 18-feet may be seen in clear weather at a distance of 7 leagues.
The now demolished lighthouse-keeper's quarters and a store room were constructed nearby.
Thomas Carter succeeded Samuel Thomas as keeper in January 1853. The following year, on hearing that a vacancy for the keeper's position had occurred, John Duffield Senior wrote to the Colonial Secretary on 17 January asking that his son Samuel be considered. Governor
Governor of Western Australia
The Governor of Western Australia is the representative in Western Australia of Australia's Monarch, Queen Elizabeth II. The Governor performs important constitutional, ceremonial and community functions, including:* presiding over the Executive Council;...
Charles Fitzgerald
Charles Fitzgerald
Captain Charles Fitzgerald was the Governor of The Gambia from 1844 until 1847, then Governor of Western Australia from 1848 to 1855....
approved Samuel Duffield's appointment as the third Rottnest lighthouse keeper the following day. Duffield, his wife and four children took up residence with an initial pay of ₤44 per year rising to ₤88 per year at his retirement in 1879 with a pension of ₤33 6d 8d. Duffield was the longest serving lighthouse keeper at Rottnest. The lighthouse keeper lived an isolated existence, being required to be on duty at all hours. This would have been exacerbated by the absence until 1866 of a permanent road between the Thomson Bay settlement and the lighthouse.
In 1863 the Admiralty
Admiralty
The Admiralty was formerly the authority in the Kingdom of England, and later in the United Kingdom, responsible for the command of the Royal Navy...
issued its first publication of the west coast of Australia in The Australia Directory Vol. 3. The light was described as revolving and flashing for five seconds in every minute, and that it could be seen for 20 nautical miles (37 km) on a clear day at an elevation of 18 feet (5.5 m). As to signalling, The Directory stated
On the approach of a vessel by day, the lightkeeper makes a signal to the pilot stationed at the north-east extreme of the island [Bathurst Point], showing whether the vessel is about to enter the channel North or South of Rottnest Island., the pilot will then proceed onboard.
A vessel arriving at Rottnest Island at night, and requiring a pilot, should show her position by lights, blue lights or rockets, or by firing guns, when the lightkeeper will give notice to the pilot, who will board the vessel as quickly as possible.
Repairs to the tower were made in 1879 and a new lens from England was ordered the following year. These works totalling £100 were approved in the Legislative Council in 1880. In March 1881 a new first order dioptric lamp was fitted and in 1887 a locally made revolving apparatus was installed. However, the Harbour and Light Department described the light as being "behind the times". A first order holophotal lantern with an estimated cost of £3,900 was ordered in 1891. The same year £6,000 was placed in the Government's budget estimates for a new lighthouse which had been under consideration for some time.
New tower
Tenders for the new tower were accepted in October 1894 for £3,237 4s. 9d. from Messrs Parker and Rhodes and construction commenced in March 1895. The foundation stone was laid on 25 April 1895 by the Premier of Western AustraliaPremier of Western Australia
The Premier of Western Australia is the head of the executive government in the Australian State of Western Australia. The Premier has similar functions in Western Australia to those performed by the Prime Minister of Australia at the national level, subject to the different Constitutions...
, Sir John Forrest
John Forrest
Sir John Forrest GCMG was an Australian explorer, the first Premier of Western Australia and a cabinet minister in Australia's first federal parliament....
and included the placement of a glass bottle in a niche in the stone, containing newspapers, coins and copies of plans of the new lighthouse. It was designed by British engineer William Douglass
William Douglass (engineer)
William Tregarthen Douglass was the Chief Engineer for the Commissioners of Irish Lights in the late-nineteenth- and early twentieth-century. He is responsible for a number of their designs of lighthouses and associated structures. He was a consulting engineer for lighthouse construction for...
with construction overseen by the colony's Engineer-in-Chief, C.Y. O'Connor. Douglass also designed the Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse
Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse
The Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse is a lighthouse located on the headland of Cape Leeuwin, the most south-westerly point on the mainland of the Australian Continent, in the state of Western Australia....
which was built between 1895 and 1896. The Leeuwin lighthouse was opened in December 1896.
Construction of the new 38.7 metres (127 ft) tower alongside the original lighthouse was completed in 1896 and on the occasion of its opening on 17 March The West Australian
The West Australian
The West Australian is the only locally-edited daily newspaper published in Perth, Western Australia, and is owned by ASX-listed Seven West Media . The West is published in tabloid format, as is the state's other major newspaper, The Sunday Times, a News Limited publication...
newspaper reported
The light is a first order Holophotal Revolving Light of 920 millimetres focal distance constructed by Messrs. Chance Bros. and Coy. Ltd, Birmingham, England, to the order of the government...The pedestal is square and contains the actuating clock with accompanying gearing. Hand rotating gear was also supplied. The clock weighs 5cwt., the rate of decent being 10 feet per second. The clock will run for a period of approximately three hours without rewinding...The optical apparatus consists of eight panels each subtending a horizontal angle of 45 degrees. The vertical angle of the lenses is 57 degrees, of the upper panels 48 degrees and the lower prisms 21 degrees. The upper prisms in each panel number 18, the central lenses 8 and the lower prisms 8. In one panel the lower prisms are omitted for convenience in entering the apparatus...The pressure lamp is of the "Chance" pattern, having a capacity of 12 gallons with suitable gearing.
The four burners (three to spare) are of the usual Trinity House old pattern. The candle power of the 6 wick burners gives and average service result per burner of 730 standard candles with 6 wicks in action. The consumption of heavy mineral oil with six wicks in action is 80.3 fluid ounces per hour.
The basement octagon of the tower is 13 metres (42.7 ft) across and 1.8 metres (5.9 ft) thick, being formed from 230 cubic metres (8,122.4 cu ft) of concrete. The superstructure is 34 metres (111.5 ft) above this and comprises 760 cubic metres (26,839.1 cu ft) of hard limestone. The outer diameter is about 9 metres (29.5 ft) at ground level and the walls are 1.4 metres (4.6 ft) thick. At the top of the tower the inner diameter is 3.4 metres (11.2 ft) and the walls excluding capping are 0.9 metres (3 ft) thick. The lantern house is 7.6 metres (24.9 ft) high. Stone for the new tower was transported to the site from a quarry at Nancy Cove, about 1.6 kilometre (0.994196378639691 mi) South-West, along a tramway built for the task.
The light characteristic was initially a flash for 3 seconds and a 17 second eclipse. There being eight lens panels, the apparatus revolved every 2 minutes 40 seconds. The new tower almost doubled the height of the previous one and accommodated a more powerful 45,000 candle power lamp which was visible for 23 nautical miles (42.6 km).
At the opening ceremony the Governor
Governor of Western Australia
The Governor of Western Australia is the representative in Western Australia of Australia's Monarch, Queen Elizabeth II. The Governor performs important constitutional, ceremonial and community functions, including:* presiding over the Executive Council;...
Sir Gerard Smith referred to the lighting of the lamp as "this new light symbolises the progress and vigour of the colony". At the same ceremony, Premier Forrest said
The lighthouse is not only a light to guide the mariner to our shores but also a magnificent milestone on the road to the progress of the colony ... a symbol to lead the people of the country on to great and noble deeds
The existing lighthouse keeper's house was built at about the same time and the old tower was demolished a short time after the new tower was commissioned. The head keeper at the time of the opening was William Brown and his assistant keepers were David Mitchinson and David Baird.
In the year ended June 1908 the wick burners were replaced by a Chance incandescent petroleum vapour burner and the light output was increased from 45,000 to 200,000 candle power. This was increased to 327,000 candles in February 1927 and the current mercury float pedestal and clockwork (now electrified) mechanism was installed in March 1929. At the same time, the light characteristic was changed to a 0.4 second flash with a 4.6 second eclipse. The revolution time was thus 40 seconds.
Electrification was done on 15 January 1936 and power increased to 1,300,000 candles. The light characteristic changed to 0.2 second flash with a 7.3 second eclipse. The apparatus revolution time became one minute.
City of York incident
On 12 July 1899 the lighthouse was involved in a major shipwreck event, when a British owned barque City of YorkCity of York (barque)
The City of York was a 1,194 ton iron barque which sunk after hitting a reef off Rottnest Island in the last few kilometres of its voyage from San Francisco to Fremantle, Western Australia in 1899....
was wrecked off a reef to the north of the island. The ship had sailed from San Francisco with a cargo of timber and was en-route to Fremantle when it was seen by the lighthouse keeper at 4:30 p.m. about 30 kilometres (18.6 mi) distant. Conditions were stormy with blinding rain. The keeper signalled news of the sighting to the head pilot at Thompson Bay who readied himself and his pilot boat to go to the assistance of the ship once it signalled for a pilot.
At 6:45 p.m. the ship had still not signalled for a pilot and the assistant lighthouse keeper challenged the ship by lighting a flare-up at the base of the lighthouse, meaning for the ship to stand off until the pilot had arrived. The captain however mistook the signal as being from a pilot boat itself and that it was the international code signifying that the ship should continue towards it (the pilot boat). He unwittingly sailed straight towards the shallow reefs which surround the island. 11 men including the captain drowned and the 68 metres (223.1 ft) 1167 tonnes (1,148.6 LT) ship was lost.
Another ship, the Carlisle Castle, was also lost in the same storm, but on the southern side of the island. Between 24 and 26 people, all on board, were drowned. There was no indication of the lighthouse having played a role in its loss.
A second Rottnest lighthouse at Bathurst Point
Bathurst Lighthouse
Bathurst Lighthouse is one of two lighthouses on Rottnest Island, the other being Wadjemup Lighthouse. It is located on Bathurst Point, in the north east of the island, and was activated in 1900...
was built in 1900 on the north-east of the island partly in response to the incident, as well as other shipping disasters in the area.
Other buildings
The lighthouse precinct includes the following extant structures- Lighthouse tower (1896)
- The foundations of the original 1849 tower in a small stone building adjacent
- 1890s lighthouse keepers cottage. This is now used for accommodation unrelated to lighthouse operations
- Battery Observation Post (BOP), built as a lookout during World War IIWorld War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
to coordinate aiming and firings from the 6-inch and 12-inch guns at Bickley Battery and Oliver's Battery on the island. Plans for its restoration and opening as a tourist attraction are under consideration. - Signals Building, associated with the BOP
- Womens' Army Barracks, built to house officers and staff who operated the BOP. The building is used nowadays for occasional accommodation for University and other scientific research groups working on the island.
Tourism and modern operations
Wadjemup Lighthouse was converted to automatic operations in November 1986 and is currently operated to the Australian Maritime Safety AuthorityAustralian Maritime Safety Authority
Australian Maritime Safety Authority is responsible, on behalf of the Commonwealth Government of Australia, for the regulation and safety oversight of Australia's shipping fleet and management of Australia's international maritime obligations...
. The last lighthouse keeper left the island in 1990.
It is a popular tourist site with volunteer guides offering hourly tours of the precinct and to the top of the tower with information on the site's history. There are 155 steps to the top and the tour offers spectacular views of the coastline around the island and back to the mainland around the Perth metropolitan area.
The lantern is a 3.66 metres (12 ft) diameter Chance Brothers
Chance Brothers
Chance Brothers and Company was a glassworks originally based in Spon Lane, Smethwick, West Midlands , in England. It was a leading glass manufacturer and a pioneer of British glassmaking technology....
device with a 920 millimetres (36.2 in) focal radius 8-panel catadioptric
Catadioptric
A catadioptric optical system is one where refraction and reflection are combined in an optical system, usually via lenses and curved mirrors . Catadioptric combinations are used in focusing systems such as search lights, headlamps, early lighthouse focusing systems, optical telescopes,...
lens from the same company. It rotates once every 60 seconds on a mercury
Mercury (element)
Mercury is a chemical element with the symbol Hg and atomic number 80. It is also known as quicksilver or hydrargyrum...
float pedestal. It is powered by 240-volt electricity from the island's mains supply and has a 2.5kVa diesel backup system.
The light is 80.5 metres (264.1 ft) above sea level and has a nominal range of 22 nautical miles (40.7 km) and geographical range of 20 nautical miles (37 km). Its current light characteristic is a single flash of 0.07 seconds every 7.5 seconds with an eclipse of 7.43 seconds.