Cape Capricorn Light

Cape Capricorn Light
	Cape Capricorn Light, 2008
Location	Cape Capricorn ; Queensland ; Australia
Coordinates	23°29′11.1″S151°14′12.4″E / 23.486417°S 151.236778°E
Tower
Constructed	1875 (first); 1936 (second)
Construction	concrete blocks
Height	23 feet (7.0 m)
Shape	square prism chamfered corners tower with balcony and no lantern
Markings	white tower
Power source	solar power
Operator	Australian Maritime Safety Authority
Heritage	listed on the Queensland Heritage Register
Light
First lit	1964 (current)
Focal height	305 feet (93 m)
Range	white: 16 nmi (30 km; 18 mi); red: 12 nmi (22 km; 14 mi)
Characteristic	Fl WR 5s

Last updated April 04, 2024

Cape Capricorn Light is an active heritage-listed lighthouse located on Cape Capricorn, a coastal headland on the northeast point of Curtis Island, in Gladstone Region, Central Queensland, Australia. The lighthouse, constructed in 1964, is the third at this site, following a timber frame lighthouse constructed in 1875^[4] and a concrete lighthouse constructed around 1937.^[5] It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 31 August 2001.^[6]

History

First lighthouse

The separation of the colony of Queensland from New South Wale took place with the signing of Letters Patent by Queen Victoria in 1859. The need for pilot assistance accessing the mouth of Fitzroy River and the Port of Rockhampton necessitates the construction of a pilot station on Curtis Island. The first permanent station was established on Cape Capricorn as early as 1861. Though it was moved to Grassy Hill three years later, the need for a lighthouse at Cape Capricorn remained a priority.^[7]

Plans for a lighthouse and cottages were prepared in early 1874 by the office of F. D. G. Stanley, Queensland Colonial Architect, with an estimated cost of £ 1460 for the lighthouse and cottages. The lighthouse, a typical Queensland timber-framed and iron clad structure, was to be prefabricated and built in Brisbane. However, the only response to the first tender was an overpriced offer of £ 2850. The second tender was more successful, the winning offer being by James Midson for £ 1046/10/-. The construction was completed sometime in October 1874, and an additional contract was granted to Midson for the erection of the structures on the site for the sum of £ 753. Quite remarkably, a last minute change in the order of the lantern from England meant that no lamp room was ordered. An urgent request for an additional £ 180 was made by Stanley for construction of a lamp room from timber framing with iron plating, instead of the planned cast iron one.^[7] The lighthouse was operational around late July 1875.^[7] The original light source was an oil wick burner.^[4] An 1895 survey also reports two additional auxiliary lights on Cape Capricorn, to the north and southeast of the main lighthouse.^[7]

Supplying the station was done from Rockhampton, and was quite a difficult task. Supplies were brought to the base of the hill by steamboat and then manually winched up over 91 metres (299 ft) on a tramway. An assessment made by Commander Brewis in 1912 recommended increasing the power of the light, adjusting the eastern auxiliary light, renovating the dwellings, repairing the tramway and supplying steam winches. However, this recommendation was to be followed very slowly and partially. However, in July 1915 the lighthouse was transferred to the control of the federal government, and it took eight more years until in 1923 the light source was finally replaced with a 55 millimetres (2.2 in) incandescent vapourised kerosene mantle.^[7]^[4] In January 1936 plans were prepared for electrification of the light. However, it is not clear if this change was made, as in the same year it was decided to replace the tower.^[7]

Second lighthouse

In 1936 the Commonwealth government decided to replace the tower with a new concrete block lighthouse, and plans were prepared in September 1937.^[5]

The new tower was a 6-metre-high (20 ft) square structure, with an adjoined powerhouse. The tower was topped by a cantilevered circular balcony and a small circular lantern. At the same time the residences and service buildings were also replaced with timber-framed asbestos clad structures.^[7] The new lighthouse was made operative with electric power in 1938.^[4] However, from undetermined reasons this lighthouse was to be short-lived, surviving only 26 years more to be replaced by a new structure in 1964.

Third lighthouse

Plans for a new powerhouse and lighthouse were made in January 1962 and July 1963 respectively. By 1964 construction was complete and the new light was operational.^[7] It was the first of a group of seven concrete towers erected between 1964 and 1979, followed by New Caloundra Light, Point Danger Light, New Burnett Heads Light, Fitzroy Island Light, Point Cartwright Light and Archer Point Light.^[8] In 1968 the light source was converted to 240 V AC operation.^[7]

Since its construction and until 1978, Cape Capricorn lightstation served as the base radio station for a network of lighthouses in the area including North Reef Light, Lady Elliot Island Light, Pine Islet Light and Dent Island Light. On 18 December 1978 this role was transferred to Bustard Head Light.^[7]

On 8 December 1983, the House Standing Committee on Expenditure tabled its report on the inquiry into lightstations entitled "Lighthouses: Do we keep the keepers?". The report recommended the demanning of 24 lightstation, including Cape Capricorn.^[9] In 1988 the station was finally converted to solar power (and presumably demanned). The lantern has been removed, and a self-contained beacon was installed. Ownership of the station was transferred to the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority in 1991, back to the Australian Maritime Safety Authority in 1995 and then to the Queensland Government in July 1997, which employs a caretaker at one of the residences.^[7] The rest are privately leased.^[10]^[4]

Current display

The light characteristic shown is one flash every five seconds, white/red depending on sector (Fl.W.R. 5s).^[3] White is shown 005°-307°, visible for 16 nautical miles (30 km; 18 mi). Red is shown 307°-005°, visible for 12 nautical miles (22 km; 14 mi).^[11] The light source is a 120 Volt tungsten-halogen lamp, fed from diesel alternators.^[4]

Structures

The current tower is 6.4 metres (21 ft) high, constructed of concrete blocks in a square plan with chamfered corners, with a small porch at the base. A round gallery surrounded with a metal rail overhangs the tower. A self-contained beacon is installed on top of the gallery.^[7]

The keeper's residence includes two cottages, timber-framed, clad with asbestos cement sheets and timber battens, painted white. The gabled roofs are clad with corrugated iron, painted green. Other similarly constructed structures at the premises include a store, the old powerhouse and a winch house, all mounted on high concrete foundations. The new powerhouse, constructed in 1964, is constructed of concrete blocks, painted white. It includes a large main room and an adjoined porch, both with projecting flat concrete roofs. There are also other sheds of small to medium size on the site, mostly timber-framed with corrugated iron walls and roof.^[7]

Also notable is the still functional^[12] rail line, a cement pathway with steel rails going down to the beach. It includes a trolley of timber on a metal base, a metal rope, a winch and a motor. There is also a cement helipad close by.^[7]

There are also some remains in the area. These include two nonoperational auxiliary leading lights, the western light timber-framed clad with fibro and the eastern one made of concrete. The remains of the previous lighthouses are in a gully north of the station^[7]

Site operation and visiting

The light is operated by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority. The site manager is the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service, as part of the Curtis Island National Park. The island is accessible only by boat or helicopter. The tower is closed to the public,^[10] but accommodations are available at the site, including two homesteads and two cabins.^[13] The original lens used is currently on display at the Townsville Maritime Museum.

Notes

↑ Rowlett mentions a red lantern roof, but this relates to the old lantern. List of Lights does not mention a red roof, and as QLD601723 mentions, the current structure has no lantern. This can also be observed on the photo.
↑ List of Lights and Rowlett. Lighthouses of Australia Inc lists 94m.
1 2 List of Lights and Rowlett. Lighthouses of Australia Inc lists "Flash every 15 Seconds".
1 2 3 4 5 6 Lighthouses of Australia Inc.
1 2 QLD601723. Lighthouses of Australia Inc and Rowlett report construction in 1936, but plans from the National Archives of Australia clearly show 1937 as the date.
↑ "Cape Capricorn Lightstation (entry 601723)". Queensland Heritage Register . Queensland Heritage Council. Retrieved 1 August 2014.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 QLD601723.
↑ QHR31351.
↑ "Lighthouses: Do we keep the keepers?". aph.gov.au. Retrieved 26 December 2010.^{[ permanent dead link ]}
1 2 Rowlett.
↑ List of Lights.
↑ "Cape Capricorn Lighthouse Escape - Brochure - Inside Left". capricornlighthouse.com. Archived from the original on 8 July 2011. Retrieved 28 December 2010.
↑ "Cape Capricorn Lighthouse Escape - Accommodation". capricornlighthouse.com. Archived from the original on 8 July 2011. Retrieved 26 December 2010.

Related Research Articles

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Sandy Cape Light is a heritage-listed active lighthouse located on Sandy Cape, the most northern point on K'gari, Queensland, Australia. It stands about 6 kilometres (3.7 mi) southwest of the northeastern tip of the island. It is the tallest lighthouse in Queensland. Built in 1870, it is the second major lighthouse to be built in Queensland after its formation in 1859. It is one of the first lighthouses in Australia to be constructed using bolted prefabricated segments of cast iron, and one of only two such lighthouses in Queensland, the other being its sibling, Bustard Head Light.

Old Caloundra Light, also known as Old Caloundra Head Light or Cape Caloundra Light, is an inactive lighthouse located in Caloundra on the Sunshine Coast in South East Queensland, Australia. It is the oldest surviving building in Caloundra. The lighthouse was active between 1896 and 1968. The tower was relocated twice. In 1970 it was relocated from its original location to Woorim Park in Caloundra, and in 1999 it was returned to its original site on Canberra Terrace near downtown Caloundra, where it stands today.

New Caloundra Light, also known as New Caloundra Head Light, is an inactive lighthouse located in Caloundra on the Sunshine Coast in South East Queensland, Australia. It stands on Canberra Terrace near downtown Caloundra. The lighthouse was active from 1968 to 1992. It has a unique design resembling an airport control tower, the only surviving example of a lighthouse of this design in Australia.

Grassy Hill Light, also known as Cooktown Light, is an active lighthouse located on Grassy Hill above Cooktown, Queensland, Australia, on the south side of the entrance to Endeavour River.

Goods Island Light is an active lighthouse located on the highest point of Goods Island (Palilag), an island in the Torres Strait, belonging to Queensland, Australia. It serves as the rear light of the Goods Island Range, pointing out the entrance to Normanby Sound.

Cape Bowling Green Light is an active lighthouse on Cape Bowling Green, a long headland ending in a long low sandspit, about 30 kilometres (19 mi) from Ayr, Queensland, Australia. The lighthouse is at the end of the headland, near the base of the sandspit. The first lighthouse at the location, established in 1874, was moved multiple times. It was prefabricated in Brisbane, shipped to the location, moved twice due to coastal erosion and finally transferred for display at the Australian National Maritime Museum at Darling Harbour in Sydney.

Lady Elliot Island Light is an active lighthouse located on Lady Elliot Island, the southernmost coral cay of the Great Barrier Reef, 46 nautical miles north-east of Bundaberg, Queensland, Australia. The lighthouse is located on the western side of the island. It was the third lighthouse erected in Queensland after its formation in 1859 and the first in Australia to be constructed of a timber frame clad with iron plates. The original lighthouse was deactivated in 1995 and the light was replaced by a modern skeletal tower standing close to the original lighthouse.

Cape Moreton Light, also listed as North Point Range Rear Light, is a heritage-listed active lighthouse located on Cape Moreton, a rocky headland located at the north eastern tip of Moreton Island, a large sand island on the eastern side of Moreton Bay, on the coast of South East Queensland, Australia. It marks the northern entrance to Moreton Bay and Brisbane and also serves as the rear light for the North Point Range. With its two distinctive red bands, it also serves as a daymark. It is the oldest lighthouse in Queensland, and the only one to be built by the New South Wales Government before the separation of Queensland, which took place in 1859. It is also the only lighthouse in Queensland to be built of stone.

Cape Cleveland Light is an active heritage-listed lighthouse located on the northern tip of Cape Cleveland, a promontory projecting into the Coral Sea west of Cleveland Bay in the locality of Cape Cleveland about 40 kilometres (25 mi) east of Townsville, Queensland, Australia. The lighthouse marks the northern point of the Cape, and the entrance to Cleveland Bay.

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Dent Island Light is an active lighthouse on Dent Island, a small island off the coast of Queensland, Australia, part of the Whitsunday Group of the Whitsunday Islands. Located on the southwest tip of the island, the light guides ships navigating the Whitsunday Passage, between Whitsunday Island and the islands to the west, and marks the Dent Island Passage.

Double Island Point Light is an active lighthouse located at the summit of Double Island Point, a coastal headland within the Cooloola section of the Great Sandy National Park. It is located at the southern end of Wide Bay, 70 kilometres (43 mi) north of Noosa Heads, Queensland, Australia.

Pine Islet Light, also known as Percy Isles Light, is an active lighthouse located at Pine Islet, a small islet belonging to the Percy Isles group of the Northumberland Islands, about 130 kilometres (81 mi) southeast of Mackay, Queensland, Australia. The original lighthouse, established 1885, was active for a hundred years, until it was deactivated in 1985, by then the last kerosene powered lighthouse in Australia. It was relocated to the Mackay Marina in 1985 and restored to full working condition, making it the last fully functional kerosene operated lighthouse in the world. At the original location now stands a modern fiberglass tower.

North Reef Light is an active lighthouse located on North Reef, a 5.6 square kilometres (2.2 sq mi) planar reef, about 120 kilometres (75 mi) northeast of Gladstone, Queensland, Australia in the Capricorn and Bunker Group. The lighthouse was constructed on a migratory patch of sand inside a fringing coral reef, which over the years disappeared and reappeared, as sand was washed away and accumulated, and is now a vegetated sandy island. Its construction is unique, having a hollow concrete base that both gives it resistance to the shifting nature of the sandbar and serves as a freshwater tank. As such, it is considered one of the major achievement in Australian lighthouse construction. It is also notable in that due to the harsh conditions, only bachelors were allowed to serve as lighthouse keepers. At 24 metres (79 ft) it is also the tallest of Queensland's timber-framed iron clad lighthouses.

Low Isles Light, also known as Low Islets Light or Low Island Light, is an active lighthouse located on Low Island, a coral cay which together with Woody Island forms the Low Isles group, about 13 kilometres (8.1 mi) northeast of Port Douglas, Queensland, Australia. The island is situated on the western edge of the main shipping channel into the harbour of Port Douglas, and it marks the entrance to the channel. Built in 1878, it was the first lighthouse in Far North Queensland and more specifically the first to light the Inner Passage of the Great Barrier Reef. Its construction is typical to Queensland lighthouses of the time, timber frame clad with galvanized iron, and it is the fourth lighthouse of this type constructed in Queensland, though it is the first of them to use portholes.

Caloundra Lighthouses are a heritage-listed pair of lighthouses at 3 Canberra Terrace, near Arthur Street, Kings Beach, Caloundra, Sunshine Coast Region, Queensland, Australia. The first, known as the Old Caloundra Light, was designed by Francis Drummond Greville Stanley and built in 1896; the second, New Caloundra Light, was built in 1968. They were added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 5 February 2010.

References

List of Lights, Pub. 111: The West Coasts of North and South America (Excluding Continental U.S.A. and Hawaii), Australia, Tasmania, New Zealand, and the Islands of the North and South Pacific Oceans (PDF). List of Lights . United States National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. 2009. p. 205.
Rowlett, Russ. "Lighthouses of Australia: Southern Queensland". The Lighthouse Directory. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill . Retrieved 14 November 2010.
"The Cape Capricorn Lighthouse". Lighthouses of Queensland. Lighthouses of Australia Inc.
"Cape Capricorn Lightstation (listing QLD601723)". Australia Heritage Places Inventory. Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities.
"Caloundra Lighthouses (entry 602746)". Queensland Heritage Register . Queensland Heritage Council. Retrieved 13 July 2015.

External links

Searle, Garry. "List of Lighthouses - Queensland". Lighthouses of Australia. SeaSide Lights.

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[1] Rowlett mentions a red lantern roof, but this relates to the old lantern. List of Lights does not mention a red roof, and as QLD601723 mentions, the current structure has no lantern. This can also be observed on the photo.

[focalheight-2] List of Lights and Rowlett. Lighthouses of Australia Inc lists 94m.

[characteristic-3] 1 2 List of Lights and Rowlett. Lighthouses of Australia Inc lists "Flash every 15 Seconds".

[FOOTNOTELighthouses_of_Australia_Inc-4] 1 2 3 4 5 6 Lighthouses of Australia Inc.

[construction2-5] 1 2 QLD601723. Lighthouses of Australia Inc and Rowlett report construction in 1936, but plans from the National Archives of Australia clearly show 1937 as the date.

[qhr-6] "Cape Capricorn Lightstation (entry 601723)". Queensland Heritage Register . Queensland Heritage Council. Retrieved 1 August 2014.

[FOOTNOTEQLD601723-7] 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 QLD601723.

[FOOTNOTEQHR31351-8] QHR31351.

[9] "Lighthouses: Do we keep the keepers?". aph.gov.au. Retrieved 26 December 2010.^{[ permanent dead link ]}

[FOOTNOTERowlett-10] 1 2 Rowlett.

[LoL-11] List of Lights.

[12] "Cape Capricorn Lighthouse Escape - Brochure - Inside Left". capricornlighthouse.com. Archived from the original on 8 July 2011. Retrieved 28 December 2010.

[13] "Cape Capricorn Lighthouse Escape - Accommodation". capricornlighthouse.com. Archived from the original on 8 July 2011. Retrieved 26 December 2010.

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