Wadjemup Lighthouse
The Wadjemup Lighthouse is a lighthouse on Rottnest Island off the coast of Western Australia . It was the first lighthouse in Australia to be equipped with a rotating light. The Bathurst Lighthouse is also nearby on the same island .
First lighthouse
The first lighthouse on this site was built in 1849 to make it safer for ships to access Fremantle Harbor and the Swan River Colony . Rottnest Island is the largest of the islands near the harbor entrance and is the first to be seen by ships arriving from the west. The lighthouse stands on the highest point on the island, the 45 meter high Wadjemup Hill.
From 1837 to 1843, John Clements Wickham and John Lort Stokes explored the coasts of Australia and made recommendations for the locations of beacons. In 1840 the surveyor John Septimus Roe first wanted to erect a marking in the form of a white obelisk on the island of Rottnest. But it soon became apparent that a lighthouse that worked day and night was needed. According to a design by Henry Trigg, Bayley Maycock from Perth built the first tower, on which the rotary lamp was not completely installed until 1851. The mechanism of the beacon was supplied by manufacturers from Fremantle. The lighting consisted of two groups of three oil lamps with reflector mirrors. Coconut oil was originally used for the burners, rapeseed oil since 1862. The light could be seen 18 nautical miles. It had the identifier of five seconds of light at 55 seconds interval. The lighthouse keeper reported the ships sighted to the pilot who was also stationed on the island .
Second lighthouse
The second main lighthouse on Rottnest Island is the fourth oldest lighthouse in Western Australia still in existence today. The contract to build the new tower went to Parker and Rhodes in October 1894. West Australian Prime Minister John Forrest laid the foundation stone next to the old tower on April 25, 1895. The English engineer William Douglass planned the 38.7 meter high structure, which was completed in 1896. Then the old lighthouse was demolished.
The lighthouse has an octagonal foundation made of concrete with a diameter of 13 meters and a tower shaft 34 meters high made of limestone from a quarry on the island of Rottnest. The lighthouse is 7.6 meters high and initially had a lantern with four mineral oil burners from the English glass manufacturer Chance Brothers and Comp. in Smethwick near Birmingham . The height of the fire is 80.5 meters above sea level. The light signal of 3 seconds with 17 seconds interval was visible 23 nautical miles. With a new kerosene burner, the lighthouse had a light intensity almost five times greater from 1908, and since 1936 it has had an even more intense electric light source, which generates a flash of 0.2 seconds at intervals of 7.3 seconds.
City of York accident
On July 12, 1899, the English three-master City of York, coming from San Francisco, was in distress in a storm in front of the lighthouse. The lighthouse keeper recognized the ship at 4:30 a.m. and issued a warning signal with a flare. The captain mistakenly mistaken the light for a signal from a waiting pilot boat and was headed for it, whereupon the ship crashed against the cliffs of Rottnest Island.
Since another ship sank off the island in this storm, it received a second lighthouse, the Bathurst Lighthouse, in 1900 .
business
The Wadjemup Lighthouse has been operated automatically by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority since 1986 . The last lighthouse keeper left the island in 1990.
tourism
The lighthouse on the island of Rottnest is a popular destination for excursions. It gives a panoramic view of the coast and the countryside around Perth.
See also
literature
- John Moynihan: All the News in a Flash. Rottnest Communications 1829-1979. 1988. ISBN 0-642-12107-9 .
Web links
- Rottnest Island Lighthouse and Signal Station
- Lighthouse on Rottnest Island
- Rottnest Island lighthouses
Individual evidence
- ↑ Moynihan 1988. p. 4.
- ^ Moynihan 1988, p. 13.
- ↑ Moynihan 1988, p. 134.
- ↑ The lighthouse on Bathurst Point. ( Memento of the original from November 5, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
Coordinates: 32 ° 0 ′ 26 ″ S , 115 ° 30 ′ 15 ″ E