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MV Cape Don Lighthouse Tender
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Figure of Eight Is
Admiralty Reference #
1808
1969- present
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1969 - 1984 |
1984 - present |
| Built in
1965, this station was originally an acetylene powered light with a lantern
house and traditional prismatic lens.
In 1984, the
apparatus was removed when the light was converted to solar power and now
comprises a lantern and GRP hut 4m high on a concrete base. The original
concrete base is still visible.
The
larger square to the left is the helipad as helicopter is the only way this
light can be serviced. |
mage from Landgate aerial
photography |
I found this wonderful digitised news report online
via TROVE - fortunately, the money must have been found eventually - some 30
years later when no doubt there was increasing amounts of shipping traffic with
the development of the Esperance region.
The West Australian
(Perth, WA
: 1879 - 1954)
Thursday 18 July 1935 Page 17
NAVIGATION AT ESPERANCE.
Request for
Island light
Refused
KALGOORLIE, July 17.— At a
conference of
local governing bodies held at
Esperance in April, it was decided to support the Esperance Road Board in a
further application to the Federal Government
for the erection of
a light on Figure
of Eight
Island, off
the entrance to the Esperance harbour. Speakers stated that the board had
previously asked the Government to supply a light, but it had replied that the
responsibility rested with the State Government.
In a letter to Mr. A. E. Green, MHR., the
Department of
Commerce states that 'the responsibility of
the Commonwealth in regard to the future provision and maintenance
of lights and other
aids to navigation ends with the erection and maintenance
of those aids, such
as lights, buoys and beacons, necessary for ocean navigation. The provision
of port, river
and inner aids to navigation is entirely a matter for the State Governments or
local authorities concerned.'
After mentioning that where
a proposed light, not essential for Commonwealth purposes would, in the opinion
of the
Lighthouse Advisory
Committee, serve the dual purpose of
contributing to the safety of
ships at sea and at the same time assist the navigation
of a port, in which
case the capital cost of
the light would be borne by the Federal Government and the State Government or
local authority concerned, the letter proceeds: 'A light on
Figure
Eight
Island would be
of no use
whatever to any ships other than the very few which can at Esperance, those
using the ocean highway on voyages between Adelaide and Albany for Fremantle
passing some 70 to 80 miles to the south and far beyond the range
of any light that
could be erected on that spot.
Therefore even if the
proposed light on Figure
of Eight
Island were
properly a Commonwealth responsibility which cannot for a moment be admitted, it
would be impossible to justify the
expenditure of
a considerable sum on the erection and
maintenance of
a light there to save a wait of
a few hours for daylight for a few ships each year, while the same amount would
provide a light, hitherto beyond our resources, at other places, some
of them In Western
Australia, where the danger to passing ships is more imminent and the volume
of traffic
very much greater.'
References
Cumming et al: Lighthouses on the
Western Australian coast and off-shore islands, 1995
TROVE - an online search engine
of the National Library of Australia- digitised newspapers, Photos and other
resources.
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