The Cape Schanck Lighthouse was built in 1859 as the second coastal lighthouse in the

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

state State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * ''Our S ...

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

. It is located on

Cape Schanck Cape Schanck is a locality at the southernmost tip of the Mornington Peninsula in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, approximately south of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the Shire of Mornington Peninsula local governme ...

, at the southernmost tip of the

Mornington Peninsula The Mornington Peninsula is a peninsula located south of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It is surrounded by Port Phillip to the west, Western Port to the east and Bass Strait to the south, and is connected to the mainland in the north. Geogra ...

. The tall tower was built from

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

. The light's

focal plane In Gaussian optics, the cardinal points consist of three pairs of points located on the optical axis of a rotationally symmetric, focal, optical system. These are the '' focal points'', the principal points, and the nodal points. For ''ideal'' ...

is situated above sea level, the

light characteristic A light characteristic is all of the properties that make a particular navigational light identifiable. Graphical and textual descriptions of navigational light sequences and colours are displayed on nautical charts and in Light Lists with the cha ...

is the

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 ...

letter "N", a long signal of 10.8 seconds followed by a flash. Depending on the bearing of the light, the colours are either white (south to west sector) or red (east sector). Due to its powerful lantern of one million

candela The candela ( or ; symbol: cd) is the unit of luminous intensity in the International System of Units (SI). It measures luminous power per unit solid angle emitted by a light source in a particular direction. Luminous intensity is analogous to ...

and a first order

Fresnel lens A Fresnel lens ( ; ; or ) is a type of composite compact lens developed by the French physicist Augustin-Jean Fresnel (1788–1827) for use in lighthouses. It has been called "the invention that saved a million ships." The design allows the c ...

, which was installed in 1915, the light has a range of . The lighthouse was not only one of the first such buildings in Victoria, it was moreover Australia's first lighthouse tower with stone stairs. During the 1970s and 1980s the facility was restored and has since become an attraction for tourists. Today there is a museum in the old assistants' quarters. Accommodation is available in the old residences of the lighthouse keeper.Australia's iconic lighthouses
, Australian Geographic, 26 July 2010

References

External links

Cape Schanck Lighthouse
- official site * Lighthouses completed in 1859 Buildings and structures in the Shire of Mornington Peninsula Lighthouses in Victoria (state) 1859 establishments in Australia Maritime museums in Victoria (state) Lighthouse museums in Australia Heritage-listed buildings in Melbourne {{VictoriaAU-struct-stub

See also

References

External links