Cape Wickham Lighthouse

The impressive Cape Wickham Lighthouse, at 48 metres, is Australia’s tallest lighthouse, but is not the tallest in the Southern Hemisphere although you will read that claim.

Established in 1861, the Cape Wickham is Australia’s, and the Southern Hemisphere’s, tallest lighthouse. The tower is constructed of local stone, with walls 3.4 metres thick at the base. It has eleven flights of stairs each of 20 steps.

The light was automated in 1918 replacing the original single wick oil burner with an acetylene flasher. This changed the character of the light from being “fixed” to group flashing, showing two flashes in quick succession every 10 seconds, and increased the candlepower from 7,500 to 13,000 candles.

The light was demanned in 1921 after which the Superintendent’s house and the three cottages were demolished. The light was tended by the lightkeeper from Currie.

The original first order catadioptric fixed lens installed in1861 was replaced in 1946 by a Chance Bros 250mm revolving lens and electric lamp with an intensity of 170,00 Candelas. The first order fixed lens was then used in the light at Quobba Point, north of Carnarvon, West Australia until 1988. The lens was returned to King Is for display in the King Island Historical Museum

The Cape Wickham Lighthouse is located at the northern tip of King Island, in Bass Strait. It also marks the southern end of the “Eye of the Needle,” the dangerous narrow western entrance, 84 kilometres wide, that ships had to go through to get into Bass Strait and to Melbourne. The northern end of this entrance is Cape Otway, Victoria.

One of these two capes was usually the first landfall for ships coming from the Cape of Good Hope, South Africa to Australia. Suddenly from an ocean of thousand of kilometres ship’s captains had to find a gap 84 kilometres wide! This lead to tragedies on both capes and the need for these lights.

It was Australia’s largest maritime disaster, the wrecking of the Cataraqui with losses of 402 lives in 1845, that eventually lead to the establishment of Cape Wickham. An earlier loss of the Neva with 225 lives, mainly convict women and children in 1835, had brought no reaction from authorities.

Even after the establishment of the light there were still wrecks as some ship’s masters mistook the light for Cape Otway. One such ship was the Netherby, wrecked near the current Currie Lighthouse in 1866, amazingly without loss of life. This was followed by the Lock Leven in 1871, and the Anna in 1873, and lead to the establishment of the Currie Lighthouse.

At these times the Cape Wickham Lighthouse became a refuge to the survivors and a final resting place to the victims.

Near the lighthouse are the unmarked graves of many of the Neva’s victims and the marked graves of some later mariners, including the master of the clipper Loch Leven, that attest to these tragedies.

The superintendent often came into conflict with hunters and other established inhabitants of the island, with one 1873 report stating:

There are certain lawless men who have taken up their residence on the island who make a practice of annoying the Superintendent in every possible way, destroying his cattle, pulling down the fences and taking his hay and in fact they say they are determined to make the place too hot for him, and I much fear it will end in some serious injury to the station or perhaps to the light itself.

— from Guiding Lights by Katherine Stanley[3]

The lighthouse circa 1887. The superintendent's quarters can be seen to the left.
The superintendents were required to be extremely self-sufficient, as only one supply ship visited the site a year. Some of the lightkeepers resorted to looting and theft to supplement these supplies, with one keeper being dismissed for storing goods that his brother had looted from a shipwreck.[3]

In the 1920s, it was determined that it was no longer necessary for the light to be staffed on a full-time basis, and automation systems were added to the lighthouse. At this time, a number of the surrounding buildings were also demolished, including the superintendent's residence. The lighthouse continued to be looked after by the lighthouse keeper from nearby Currie.[3]

During preparations for the 150th anniversary of the lighthouse, it was discovered that it had never been officially opened.[6] To rectify this oversight, Australian Governor-General Quentin Bryce officially opened the lighthouse in a ceremony on 5 November 2011