Bean Rock Lighthouse is a

lighthouse A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of physical structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses and to serve as a beacon for navigational aid, for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways. Lighthouses mar ...

situated at the end of a reef in the

Waitematā Harbour Waitematā Harbour is the main access by sea to Auckland, New Zealand. For this reason it is often referred to as Auckland Harbour, despite the fact that it is one of two harbours adjoining the city. The harbour forms the northern and easter ...

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...

, New Zealand. It is the only remaining example in New Zealand of a wooden cottage-style lighthouse, and it is one of only a few remaining worldwide. It is also the oldest wooden lighthouse and only wave-washed tower in New Zealand. It is owned, operated and maintained by

Ports of Auckland Ports of Auckland Limited (POAL), the successor to the Auckland Harbour Board, is the Auckland Council-owned company administering Auckland's commercial freight and cruise ship harbour facilities. As the company operates all of the associated fa ...

History

The rocks were named Te Toka-o-Kapetaua by

Māori Māori or Maori can refer to: Relating to the Māori people * Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group * Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand * Māori culture * Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the C ...

, after

Te Patukirikiri Te Patukirikiri is a Māori iwi of the Hauraki area of New Zealand. Radio station Nga Iwi FM broadcasts for Te Patukirikiri, Marutūahu from the iwi of Ngāti Tamaterā, Ngāti Rongoū, Ngāti Whanaunga, Ngāti Maru and Ngāti Pāoa, and other ...

ancestor Kapetaua was abandoned on the rocks by his brother-in-law Tarakumukumu. The European name, Bean Rock, was chosen in 1840, and named after Royal Navy Lieutenant P.C.D. Bean of HMS ''Herald'', the master of the ship that carried out the first harbour survey of the Waitematā after the founding of the township of Auckland. Bean Rock lighthouse was built c. 1870 at a cost of 3,000 pounds and was first lit on 24 July 1871, using a kerosene lamp of 350 candlepower. The location had been recommended by James Balfour and he did the early conceptual design work but was drowned in an accident before the design was completed. His design work was finished by James Stewart. Bean Rock was inhabited by lighthouse keepers and their families until 1912, when it was automated and the keepers were withdrawn. The lighthouse keeper from 1909 to 1911, James Anderson, kept in contact with his family by sending

Morse code Morse code is a method used in telecommunication to encode text characters as standardized sequences of two different signal durations, called ''dots'' and ''dashes'', or ''dits'' and ''dahs''. Morse code is named after Samuel Morse, one of ...

messages by torch-light to his son who lived in Devonport. In 1936, cable was laid from the

Ōrākei Ōrākei is a suburb of Auckland city, in the North Island of New Zealand. It is located on a peninsula five kilometres to the east of the city centre, on the shore of the Waitematā Harbour, which lies to the north, and Hobson Bay and Orakei ...

wharf to the lighthouse and the light was run by electricity. At the time, the beacon had a distinctive signalling sequence and a coloured light display to indicate the correct course to shipping in the channel. By the 1980s, the lighthouse was in poor condition due to corroded iron fittings and rotting kauri beams. Because of this, the

Auckland Harbour Board The Auckland Harbour Board was a public body that operated the ports of both Auckland and Onehunga from 1871 to 1988 and was dissolved in 1989. Its successor organisation is Ports of Auckland, which assumed the possessions and responsibilities of ...

decided that the lighthouse should be replaced with a religious sculpture or other significant piece of artwork. The board later decided to keep the lighthouse due to the historical significance, and began to restore the structure. In 1985, the lighthouse was restored, with new timber legs being sunk into new concrete foundations. In the mid-1990s, the lighthouse was converted to solar power and synchronised with an automatic foghorn. Bean Rock lighthouse has a Category 1 registration (number 3295) under the Historic Places Act. As it is a working lighthouse, it is not open to the public.

Gallery

File:Heritage Building Lighthouse In Auckland.jpg, Model of the Bean Rock Lighthouse in

Wynyard Quarter The Wynyard Quarter (historically also known as the Western Reclamation, Wynyard Point, Wynyard Wharf or Tank Farm) is a reclaimed piece of land on the Waitematā Harbour at the western edge of the Auckland waterfront, New Zealand. It is loca ...

File:Heli-Fishing Bean Rock Lighthouse.jpg, Aerial view of the lighthouse File:Bean Rock Lighthouse - P&O First Day.jpg, Bean Rock lighthouse with Mission Bay in the background File:James Anderson, Bean Rock lighthouse (AM PH-RES-2654).jpg, Lighthouse keeper James Anderson in 1910

References

External links

*
Lighthouses of New Zealand
''Maritime New Zealand'' {{Authority control Lighthouses completed in 1871 Lighthouses in New Zealand 1870s architecture in New Zealand Heritage New Zealand Category 1 historic places in the Auckland Region Transport buildings and structures in the Auckland Region Waitematā Harbour

History

Gallery

See also

References

External links