Cape Jaffa Lighthouse is a decommissioned

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 ...

formerly located on Margaret Brock Reef near

Cape Jaffa Cape Jaffa is a headland in the Australian state of South Australia located at the south end of Lacepede Bay on the state's south east coast about south west of the town centre of Kingston SE. The cape is described as being "a low sandy point" ...

on the southeast coast of

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...

and whose tower has been located in the town of

Kingston SE Kingston SE (Kingston South East to distinguish it from Kingston-on-Murray) formerly Kingston is a town in the Australian state of South Australia located in the state's south-east coastline on the shores of Lacepede Bay. It is located about ...

since 1976. The former lighthouse tower is owned by the

National Trust of South Australia The National Trust of Australia, officially the Australian Council of National Trusts (ACNT), is the Australian national peak body for community-based, non-government non-profit organisations committed to promoting and conserving Australia's Ind ...

, which operates it as a museum. The platform which supported the tower is still in place at Margaret Brock Reef as of 2022.

History

The lighthouse was designed by George Wells, and the components made at

Chance Brothers Chance Brothers and Company was a glassworks originally based in Spon Lane, Smethwick, West Midlands (formerly in Staffordshire), in England. It was a leading glass manufacturer and a pioneer of British glassmaking technology. The Chance fami ...

Smethwick Smethwick () is an industrial town in Sandwell, West Midlands, England. It lies west of Birmingham city centre. Historically it was in Staffordshire. In 2019, the ward of Smethwick had an estimated population of 15,246, while the wider bu ...

in the

West Midlands West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...

area of England. The parts were packed up and sent to Australia, and reconstructed at Cape Jaffa. All in all it took three years to build and was opened on 6 January 1872. It was originally built out to sea from Cape Jaffa on the Margaret Brock Reef. One particular shipwreck, the

SS Admella SS ''Admella'' was an Australian passenger steamship that was shipwrecked on a submerged reef off the coast of Carpenter Rocks, south west of Mount Gambier South Australia, in the early hours of Saturday 6 August 1859. Survivors clung to the wre ...

was cited at the time as the reason for commissioning the lighthouse. Known as a Wells

screw pile A screw and a bolt (see '' Differentiation between bolt and screw'' below) are similar types of fastener typically made of metal and characterized by a helical ridge, called a ''male thread'' (external thread). Screws and bolts are used to fa ...

, the original structure was held secure by being screwed into the ocean/reefs rocks. It was high and was designed to suit the local conditions. In its original structure, the lighthouse had eight rooms, enough to accommodate two lighthouse keepers and their families with enough stores to last several weeks. The lighthouse used a

lantern which could be seen for a distance up to . The federal government installed an automatic light to the structure in the early 1970s and handed operation to the National Trust of South Australia. After almost 101 years of use, the lighthouse was deactivated in 1973 when a new lighthouse at

Robe A robe is a loose-fitting outer garment. Unlike garments described as capes or cloaks, robes usually have sleeves. The English word ''robe'' derives from Middle English ''robe'' ("garment"), borrowed from Old French ''robe'' ("booty, spoils" ...

began operation. The lighthouse was listed on the now-defunct

Register of the National Estate The Register of the National Estate was a heritage register that listed natural and cultural heritage places in Australia that was closed in 2007. Phasing out began in 2003, when the Australian National Heritage List and the Commonwealth Heritag ...

on 21 March 1978 and on the

South Australian Heritage Register The South Australian Heritage Register, also known as the SA Heritage Register, is a statutory register of historic places in South Australia. It extends legal protection regarding demolition and development under the ''Heritage Places Act 1993'' ...

on 24 July 1980. The structure on which the lighthouse tower originally stood still stands as of 2022. It currently hosts a breeding colony of

Australasian gannet The Australasian gannet (''Morus serrator''), also known as the Australian gannet or tākapu, is a large seabird of the booby and gannet family, Sulidae. Adults are mostly white, with black flight feathers at the wingtips and lining the traili ...

Lighthouse keepers

When the lighthouse was first in service there were three keepers on duty at the lighthouse and one at the short station. The keepers rotated so that they had one month ashore followed by three on the lighthouse. The shore keeper maintained the lighthouse cottages and monitored the radio. Charles Henry West served as a lighthouse keeper at Cape Jaffa Lighthouse during the period 1893-1919, as well as

Troubridge Island Lighthouse Troubridge Island Lighthouse is a decommissioned lighthouse in the Australian state of South Australia located on Troubridge Island in Gulf St Vincent about southwest of the state capital of Adelaide and about southeast by east of Edithburgh o ...

and

South Neptune Island Lighthouse South Neptune Island Lighthouse is a lighthouse on South Neptune Islands within the Neptune Islands, near the entrance to Spencer Gulf in South Australia. History It was first lit on 1 November 1901. During the 1980s, a new tower was built to ...

. Prior to this, he was a customs officer at

Port Adelaide Port Adelaide is a port-side region of Adelaide, approximately northwest of the Adelaide CBD. It is also the namesake of the City of Port Adelaide Enfield council, a suburb, a federal and state electoral division and is the main port for the ...

. At the age of 44, he married Emma Isabella Germein, daughter of Samuel Germein, at Baptist Church Manse,

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...

Visiting

The lighthouse tower was moved to its present location in

in 1976, where it became a museum. It is open during South Australian school holidays. The museum is set up to show how lighthouse keepers and their families lived in the tower structure. There is a log cabin quilt on one of the beds that is on the National Quilt Register. An interactive display telling the tragic story of the 1852 shipwreck of the barque '' Margaret Brock'' was opened in 2016.

Footnotes

References

External links