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Macquarie Lighthouse
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Macquarie Lighthouse
The Macquarie Lighthouse, also known as South Head Upper Light, is the first, and is the longest serving, lighthouse site in Australia. It is located on Dunbar Head, on Old South Head Road, Vaucluse in the Municipality of Woollahra local government area of New South Wales, Australia. The lighthouse is situated approximately 2 kilometres (1 mi) south of South Head near the entrance to Sydney Harbour. There has been a navigational aid in this vicinity since 1791 and a lighthouse near the present site since 1818. The current heritage-listed lighthouse was completed in 1883. The lighthouse and associated buildings were designed by James Barnet and built from 1881 to 1883.
The lighthouse is fully operational and is under the control of the Australian Maritime Safety Authority. The grounds are managed by the Sydney Harbour Federation Trust.
The lighthouse is featured on the coat of arms of Macquarie University. A simplified line drawing of the lighthouse forms the logo of Woollahra Council in which local government the lighthouse is located.
The lighthouse and associated site were added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999 and to the Commonwealth Heritage List on 22 June 2004.
In February 2006 the Sydney Harbour Federation Trust commissioned the Australian Museum Business Services to carry out an Archaeological Survey of the Macquarie Lightstation. This was undertaken in conjunction with the La Perouse Aboriginal Land Council. The survey found no Aboriginal sites or objects on the surface and that the previous disturbance to the site made it highly unlikely that any Aboriginal material was pre-Greenway wall is likely to have come from an Aboriginal midden and appears to contain at least one possible artefact within it. It recommends that no further survey work is necessary or warranted. However, due to the shell midden material it recommends recording the wall as an Aboriginal site. It also recommended that any work to the east of the Francis Greenway wall that will result in the exposure of the sandstone platforms will require monitoring and detailed recording conducted by a qualified archaeologist.
The Macquarie Lightstation Precinct and surrounding lands were dedicated to navigational and communication activities from the very early years of the colony and remarkably continue to be associated with these uses today. As early as 1788, South Head was being used as a look-out point for boats entering and leaving the harbour. Prior to 1816 South Head was the site for a manned flagstaff, a fire beacon, a navigation column and a signal station. In 1790, Captain Arthur Phillip directed a party of seamen from the Sirius to erect a flagstaff "on a high bluff...at the entrance to the harbour..." in order to communicate the arrival of ships into the harbour back to the colony at Sydney Cove. The first signal from here was displayed in February of that year. It is believed that the present Signal Station is the site of the 1790 flagstaff. Later that year, Phillip also commanded that a column be erected near the flagstaff. It should be "... of a height sufficient to be seen from some distance at sea, and the stonemasons were sent down to quarry stone upon the spot for the building..." The column was erected on a raised base measuring 16 square feet (1.5 m2) and had its own base of 4 square feet (0.37 m2). The signalling activities at South Head were now two-fold, communicating news about the arrival of ships to the colony at Sydney Cove via semaphore, and informing ships of the location of the entrance to Port Jackson. By the end of 1790 the site was known as the "Look-out Post" and there were huts and vegetable gardens adjacent to the flagstaff for the eleven men stationed there.
The column was destroyed in September 1792 by a major storm. It was reportedly re-erected using bricks from Bennelong's disused hut on Bennelong Point as there were not enough bricks available from the kilns in the Brickfields. This was followed, in 1793, by a tripod mounted iron basket which originally burned wood, and later coal. During this period, access to the site was via a walking track which was approximately in the same location as the present Old South Head Road. In 1803 surgeon John Harris offered to construct a road 4.6 metres (15 ft) wide for A£100. By 1811 the thirteen kilometres (eight miles) of road and eleven bridges of Old South Head Road was completed. It terminated at the Signal Station with a walking track leading down to Watsons Bay.
Following the end of the Napoleonic war in 1815, many more convicts were sent to New South Wales, with over 1000 arriving in 1818. The impending arrival of ships transporting convicts and an increase in the volume of shipping led to the commencement of a series of building projects in Sydney. Governor Macquarie gave instructions that a lighthouse, the first in Australia, be constructed at the entrance to Port Jackson on South Head. Francis Greenway was appointed as architect and Captain John Gill as supervisor. Numerous people criticised the appropriateness of the site because of its distance 2.4 kilometres (1.5 mi) from the opening into Port Jackson between Sydney Heads. Greenway suggested North Head as an appropriate location, but this was dismissed by Governor Macquarie as being too remote. The foundation stone was laid on 11 July 1816.
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Macquarie Lighthouse
The Macquarie Lighthouse, also known as South Head Upper Light, is the first, and is the longest serving, lighthouse site in Australia. It is located on Dunbar Head, on Old South Head Road, Vaucluse in the Municipality of Woollahra local government area of New South Wales, Australia. The lighthouse is situated approximately 2 kilometres (1 mi) south of South Head near the entrance to Sydney Harbour. There has been a navigational aid in this vicinity since 1791 and a lighthouse near the present site since 1818. The current heritage-listed lighthouse was completed in 1883. The lighthouse and associated buildings were designed by James Barnet and built from 1881 to 1883.
The lighthouse is fully operational and is under the control of the Australian Maritime Safety Authority. The grounds are managed by the Sydney Harbour Federation Trust.
The lighthouse is featured on the coat of arms of Macquarie University. A simplified line drawing of the lighthouse forms the logo of Woollahra Council in which local government the lighthouse is located.
The lighthouse and associated site were added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999 and to the Commonwealth Heritage List on 22 June 2004.
In February 2006 the Sydney Harbour Federation Trust commissioned the Australian Museum Business Services to carry out an Archaeological Survey of the Macquarie Lightstation. This was undertaken in conjunction with the La Perouse Aboriginal Land Council. The survey found no Aboriginal sites or objects on the surface and that the previous disturbance to the site made it highly unlikely that any Aboriginal material was pre-Greenway wall is likely to have come from an Aboriginal midden and appears to contain at least one possible artefact within it. It recommends that no further survey work is necessary or warranted. However, due to the shell midden material it recommends recording the wall as an Aboriginal site. It also recommended that any work to the east of the Francis Greenway wall that will result in the exposure of the sandstone platforms will require monitoring and detailed recording conducted by a qualified archaeologist.
The Macquarie Lightstation Precinct and surrounding lands were dedicated to navigational and communication activities from the very early years of the colony and remarkably continue to be associated with these uses today. As early as 1788, South Head was being used as a look-out point for boats entering and leaving the harbour. Prior to 1816 South Head was the site for a manned flagstaff, a fire beacon, a navigation column and a signal station. In 1790, Captain Arthur Phillip directed a party of seamen from the Sirius to erect a flagstaff "on a high bluff...at the entrance to the harbour..." in order to communicate the arrival of ships into the harbour back to the colony at Sydney Cove. The first signal from here was displayed in February of that year. It is believed that the present Signal Station is the site of the 1790 flagstaff. Later that year, Phillip also commanded that a column be erected near the flagstaff. It should be "... of a height sufficient to be seen from some distance at sea, and the stonemasons were sent down to quarry stone upon the spot for the building..." The column was erected on a raised base measuring 16 square feet (1.5 m2) and had its own base of 4 square feet (0.37 m2). The signalling activities at South Head were now two-fold, communicating news about the arrival of ships to the colony at Sydney Cove via semaphore, and informing ships of the location of the entrance to Port Jackson. By the end of 1790 the site was known as the "Look-out Post" and there were huts and vegetable gardens adjacent to the flagstaff for the eleven men stationed there.
The column was destroyed in September 1792 by a major storm. It was reportedly re-erected using bricks from Bennelong's disused hut on Bennelong Point as there were not enough bricks available from the kilns in the Brickfields. This was followed, in 1793, by a tripod mounted iron basket which originally burned wood, and later coal. During this period, access to the site was via a walking track which was approximately in the same location as the present Old South Head Road. In 1803 surgeon John Harris offered to construct a road 4.6 metres (15 ft) wide for A£100. By 1811 the thirteen kilometres (eight miles) of road and eleven bridges of Old South Head Road was completed. It terminated at the Signal Station with a walking track leading down to Watsons Bay.
Following the end of the Napoleonic war in 1815, many more convicts were sent to New South Wales, with over 1000 arriving in 1818. The impending arrival of ships transporting convicts and an increase in the volume of shipping led to the commencement of a series of building projects in Sydney. Governor Macquarie gave instructions that a lighthouse, the first in Australia, be constructed at the entrance to Port Jackson on South Head. Francis Greenway was appointed as architect and Captain John Gill as supervisor. Numerous people criticised the appropriateness of the site because of its distance 2.4 kilometres (1.5 mi) from the opening into Port Jackson between Sydney Heads. Greenway suggested North Head as an appropriate location, but this was dismissed by Governor Macquarie as being too remote. The foundation stone was laid on 11 July 1816.
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