Cape Byron Light
Encyclopedia
Cape Byron Light is an active lighthouse
located at Cape Byron
, New South Wales
, Australia
. The cape is the easternmost point of the mainland of Australia, located about 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) northeast of the town of Byron Bay
. It is Australia's most powerful lighthouse, with a light intensity of 2,200,000 cd
.
, a lighthouse was not constructed on the cape since it was considered clearly visible anyway. The decision to proceed with building the light was made at the end of the 1890s, and the site was levelled in October 1899.
The tower was built by James Barnet
's successor, Charles Assinder Harding, who also designed Norah Head Light
and Point Perpendicular Light
, in a style similar to Barnet's.
Construction of the site began in July 1900 by contractors Mitchell and King. The total cost was £10,042 pounds to the contractors, £8,000 for the apparatus and lantern house, and £2,600 for the road from Byron Bay township.
Construction ended in 1901 and was to be celebrated on 30 November 1901 in a great banquet, with special trains carrying visitors from Lismore
and Murwillumbah, at the presence of the Premier
of the day, the Hon. John See
, who was to arrive from Sydney in the government steamer 'Victoria'. However, bad weather delayed the ship till the following day and the banquet was held without him. The opening by the Premier took place a day later.
. The 2 metres (6.6 ft) diameter lens, weighing 8 tonnes (7.9 LT), contains 760 pieces of highly polished prismatic glass, floating in a 7 long hundredweights (355.6 kg) float bath of mercury. It was the first lighthouse in Australia with a mercury float mechanism.. The mechanism is rotating also during the day to reduce the risk of fire from the sun's rays. It is the only Henry-LePaute apparatus in Australis.
The original light source was a concentric six wick kerosene
burner with an intensity of 145,000 cd. This was replaced in 1922 by a vapourised kerosene mantle burner with an intensity of 500,000 cd.
In 1922 an improved apparatus was installed, doubling the power to 1,000,000 cd. In 1956 the light was electrified, the clock mechanism was replaced by an electric motor, and the light source was replaced with a 1000&mbspWatt
120 Volt
tungsten-halogen lamp with an intensity of 2,200,000 cd, fed from the Mains electricity
, with a 2.5 KVA backup diesel alternator
. At that time, the keeper
staff was reduced from three to two.
The station was fully automated in 1989, and the last lighthouse keeper departed.
The light characteristic shown is a white flash every 15 seconds (Fl.W. 15s). The tower also displays a red, short ranged, continuous light (F.R.) to the northeast, covering Julian Rocks
and the nearby reefs. The red light is emitted at a lower focal plain.
.
The tower is tapered, standing 74 feet (22.6 m) high, including the lantern. Ascending is done via an internal spiral concrete staircase with slate
treads. It is topped by the iron floored lantern room. The lantern room has iron dado
walls and the roof is domed, covered in sheet metal, and surmounted by a wind vane and a ventilator.
At the base of the tower there is an entrance porch, lobby and two service rooms, all having crenellated parapet walls, painted white with a blue trim on the bottom from the outside. The porch has a trachyte
floor and steps, a cedar entrance door and etched glass panels and sidelights. The lobby has a tiled floor and trachyte steps, and the other rooms have asphalted floors and cedar windows.
Housing at the site includes the head lighthouse keeper
's residence, and two assistant keeper's cottages (a duplex
), which are available for overnight rental. Both structures were erected from precast concrete blocks in 1901.
Another distinctive structure is a small Flag Room, also constructed of precast concrete blocks. Also present are two garages, a workshop and public toilets. Some of the original fending is also extant.
, while the site is managed by Department of Environment, Climate Change and Water as part of the Cape Byron State Conservation Area, and by the Byron Bay Headland Reserve Trust.
, with Southern Cross University
's Whale Research Centre is located at the lighthouse.
The lighthouse is located at the end of Lighthouse Road, east of Byron Bay. The site is open daily, for a parking fee, and the tower is open to guided tours on Tuesdays and Thursdays throughout the year and on Saturdays in the summer, reservations required.
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....
located at Cape Byron
Cape Byron
Cape Byron is the easternmost point of the mainland of Australia. It is located about northeast of the town of Byron Bay and projects into the Pacific Ocean...
, New South Wales
New South Wales
New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
. The cape is the easternmost point of the mainland of Australia, located about 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) northeast of the town of Byron Bay
Byron Bay, New South Wales
Byron Bay is a beachside town located in the far-northeastern corner of the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is located north of Sydney and south of Brisbane. Cape Byron, a headland adjacent to the town, is the easternmost point of mainland Australia. At the 2006 Census, the town had a...
. It is Australia's most powerful lighthouse, with a light intensity of 2,200,000 cd
Candela
The candela is the SI base unit of luminous intensity; that is, power emitted by a light source in a particular direction, weighted by the luminosity function . A common candle emits light with a luminous intensity of roughly one candela...
.
History
Though Cape Byron was explored in the early 19th century, and construction of lighthouses on the New South Wales shore quickened in the mid 19th century, and especially in the 1870s under Colonial Architect James BarnetJames Barnet
James Johnstone Barnet was the Colonial Architect for New South Wales from 1862 - 1890.-Life and career:Barnet was born at Almericlose, Arbroath, Scotland. The son of a builder, he was educated at the local high school...
, a lighthouse was not constructed on the cape since it was considered clearly visible anyway. The decision to proceed with building the light was made at the end of the 1890s, and the site was levelled in October 1899.
The tower was built by James Barnet
James Barnet
James Johnstone Barnet was the Colonial Architect for New South Wales from 1862 - 1890.-Life and career:Barnet was born at Almericlose, Arbroath, Scotland. The son of a builder, he was educated at the local high school...
's successor, Charles Assinder Harding, who also designed Norah Head Light
Norah Head Light
Norah Head Light is an active lighthouse located at Norah Head, a headland on the Central Coast, New South Wales, Australia, close to Toukley. It is the last lighthouse of the James Barnet style to be built, and the last staffed lighthouse constructed in New South Wales.Officially displayed for the...
and Point Perpendicular Light
Point Perpendicular Light
Point Perpendicular Light is a lighthouse located on Point Perpendicular, a point at the southern tip of the Beecroft Peninsula, in New South Wales, Australia. It marks and the northern entrance to Jervis Bay. The historic lighthouse was active from 1889 to 1993 and is still present, though its...
, in a style similar to Barnet's.
Construction of the site began in July 1900 by contractors Mitchell and King. The total cost was £10,042 pounds to the contractors, £8,000 for the apparatus and lantern house, and £2,600 for the road from Byron Bay township.
Construction ended in 1901 and was to be celebrated on 30 November 1901 in a great banquet, with special trains carrying visitors from Lismore
Lismore, New South Wales
Lismore is a subtropical town in northeastern New South Wales, Australia. Lismore is the main population centre in the City of Lismore local government area. Lismore is a regional centre in the Northern Rivers region of the State.-History:...
and Murwillumbah, at the presence of the Premier
Premiers of New South Wales
The Premier of New South Wales is the head of government in the state of New South Wales, Australia. The Government of New South Wales follows the Westminster system, with a Parliament of New South Wales acting as the legislature...
of the day, the Hon. John See
John See
Sir John See, KCMG was a member of the New South Wales Legislature from 26 November 1880 to 15 June 1901, and was then Premier of New South Wales from 1901 to 1904....
, who was to arrive from Sydney in the government steamer 'Victoria'. However, bad weather delayed the ship till the following day and the banquet was held without him. The opening by the Premier took place a day later.
Lens, light source and power
The lens now in use is the original 1st-order bivalve Henry-LePaute Fresnel lensFresnel lens
A Fresnel lens is a type of lens originally developed by French physicist Augustin-Jean Fresnel for lighthouses.The design allows the construction of lenses of large aperture and short focal length without the mass and volume of material that would be required by a lens of conventional design...
. The 2 metres (6.6 ft) diameter lens, weighing 8 tonnes (7.9 LT), contains 760 pieces of highly polished prismatic glass, floating in a 7 long hundredweights (355.6 kg) float bath of mercury. It was the first lighthouse in Australia with a mercury float mechanism.. The mechanism is rotating also during the day to reduce the risk of fire from the sun's rays. It is the only Henry-LePaute apparatus in Australis.
The original light source was a concentric six wick 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...
burner with an intensity of 145,000 cd. This was replaced in 1922 by a vapourised kerosene mantle burner with an intensity of 500,000 cd.
In 1922 an improved apparatus was installed, doubling the power to 1,000,000 cd. In 1956 the light was electrified, the clock mechanism was replaced by an electric motor, and the light source was replaced with a 1000&mbspWatt
Watt
The watt is a derived unit of power in the International System of Units , named after the Scottish engineer James Watt . The unit, defined as one joule per second, measures the rate of energy conversion.-Definition:...
120 Volt
Volt
The volt is the SI derived unit for electric potential, electric potential difference, and electromotive force. The volt is named in honor of the Italian physicist Alessandro Volta , who invented the voltaic pile, possibly the first chemical battery.- Definition :A single volt is defined as the...
tungsten-halogen lamp with an intensity of 2,200,000 cd, fed from the Mains electricity
Mains electricity
Mains is the general-purpose alternating current electric power supply. In the US, electric power is referred to by several names including household power, household electricity, powerline, domestic power, wall power, line power, AC power, city power, street power, and grid power...
, with a 2.5 KVA backup diesel alternator
Alternator
An alternator is an electromechanical device that converts mechanical energy to electrical energy in the form of alternating current.Most alternators use a rotating magnetic field but linear alternators are occasionally used...
. At that time, the keeper
Lighthouse keeper
A lighthouse keeper is the person responsible for tending and caring for a lighthouse, particularly the light and lens in the days when oil lamps and clockwork mechanisms were used. Keepers were needed to trim the wicks, replenish fuel, wind clockworks and perform maintenance tasks such as cleaning...
staff was reduced from three to two.
The station was fully automated in 1989, and the last lighthouse keeper departed.
The light characteristic shown is a white flash every 15 seconds (Fl.W. 15s). The tower also displays a red, short ranged, continuous light (F.R.) to the northeast, covering Julian Rocks
Julian Rocks
Julian Rocks is a pair of small islands, surrounded by marine reserve 2.5 kilometers offshore from Byron Bay.According to a story from the Bundjalung people, a jealous husband threw his spear at the canoe of his wife and her lover. The canoe broke in two and sank to the bottom of the ocean...
and the nearby reefs. The red light is emitted at a lower focal plain.
Structures
The lighthouse is built out of precast concrete blocks and painted white. The concrete blocks were made on the ground, lifted and cemented into position and finally cement rendered inside and out. This technique saved the need for on site quarrying. It was only the second lighthouse to be constructed in this method, the first being Point Perpendicular LightPoint Perpendicular Light
Point Perpendicular Light is a lighthouse located on Point Perpendicular, a point at the southern tip of the Beecroft Peninsula, in New South Wales, Australia. It marks and the northern entrance to Jervis Bay. The historic lighthouse was active from 1889 to 1993 and is still present, though its...
.
The tower is tapered, standing 74 feet (22.6 m) high, including the lantern. Ascending is done via an internal spiral concrete staircase with slate
Slate
Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. The result is a foliated rock in which the foliation may not correspond to the original sedimentary layering...
treads. It is topped by the iron floored lantern room. The lantern room has iron dado
Dado (architecture)
In architectural terminology, the dado, borrowed from Italian meaning die or plinth, is the lower part of a wall, below the dado rail and above the skirting board....
walls and the roof is domed, covered in sheet metal, and surmounted by a wind vane and a ventilator.
At the base of the tower there is an entrance porch, lobby and two service rooms, all having crenellated parapet walls, painted white with a blue trim on the bottom from the outside. The porch has a trachyte
Trachyte
Trachyte is an igneous volcanic rock with an aphanitic to porphyritic texture. The mineral assemblage consists of essential alkali feldspar; relatively minor plagioclase and quartz or a feldspathoid such as nepheline may also be present....
floor and steps, a cedar entrance door and etched glass panels and sidelights. The lobby has a tiled floor and trachyte steps, and the other rooms have asphalted floors and cedar windows.
Housing at the site includes the head lighthouse keeper
Lighthouse keeper
A lighthouse keeper is the person responsible for tending and caring for a lighthouse, particularly the light and lens in the days when oil lamps and clockwork mechanisms were used. Keepers were needed to trim the wicks, replenish fuel, wind clockworks and perform maintenance tasks such as cleaning...
's residence, and two assistant keeper's cottages (a duplex
Duplex (building)
The term duplex can be used to describe several different dwelling unit configurations:A duplex house is defined as a dwelling having apartments with separate entrances for two families. This includes two-story houses having a complete apartment on each floor and also side-by-side apartments on a...
), which are available for overnight rental. Both structures were erected from precast concrete blocks in 1901.
Another distinctive structure is a small Flag Room, also constructed of precast concrete blocks. Also present are two garages, a workshop and public toilets. Some of the original fending is also extant.
Site operation
The light is operated by 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...
, while the site is managed by Department of Environment, Climate Change and Water as part of the Cape Byron State Conservation Area, and by the Byron Bay Headland Reserve Trust.
Visiting
The lighthouse is very well known, attracting more than 500,000 visitors per year. It is also a popular site for whale watchingWhale watching
Whale watching is the practice of observing whales and other cetaceans in their natural habitat. Whales are watched most commonly for recreation but the activity can also serve scientific or educational purposes. A 2009 study, prepared for IFAW, estimated that 13 million people went whale watching...
, with Southern Cross University
Southern Cross University
Southern Cross University is a university based on the North and Mid North Coast of New South Wales, Australia. It is a regional University with more than 14,000 students. The University's primary campus is in Lismore, with other campuses located at Coffs Harbour and Tweed Heads.The University is...
's Whale Research Centre is located at the lighthouse.
The lighthouse is located at the end of Lighthouse Road, east of Byron Bay. The site is open daily, for a parking fee, and the tower is open to guided tours on Tuesdays and Thursdays throughout the year and on Saturdays in the summer, reservations required.