Warden Head Light, also known as Ulladulla Lighthouse, is an active

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 ...

on Warden Head, a

headland A headland, also known as a head, is a coastal landform, a point of land usually high and often with a sheer drop, that extends into a body of water. It is a type of promontory. A headland of considerable size often is called a cape.Whittow, John ...

south of

Ulladulla Ulladulla is a coastal town in New South Wales, Australia in the City of Shoalhaven local government area. It is on the Princes Highway about south of Sydney, halfway between Batemans Bay to the south and Nowra to the north. Ulladulla has cl ...

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

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 ...

, guarding the entrance to the Port of Ulladulla. It is one of only two

wrought iron Wrought iron is an iron alloy with a very low carbon content (less than 0.08%) in contrast to that of cast iron (2.1% to 4%). It is a semi-fused mass of iron with fibrous slag Inclusion (mineral), inclusions (up to 2% by weight), which give it a ...

lighthouses in New South Wales, the other being its sibling,

Wollongong Breakwater Lighthouse Wollongong Breakwater Lighthouse, also known as Wollongong Harbour Lighthouse, is a historic lighthouse situated on the southern breakwater of the heritage-listed Wollongong Harbour, in Wollongong, New South Wales in Australia. Wollongong is t ...

. It is also notable for two relocations: the tower was constructed in 1873 on the Ulladulla Breakwater, and relocated in 1889 to its current location. Its keeper's house was relocated to a different location in the 1920s.

History

First recommendations for construction of a lighthouse at the Ulladulla Harbour were made in 1868, enabling night activity at the port. Construction of a lighthouse at the Ulladulla Harbour breakwater was initiated by

Edward Orpen Moriarty Edward Orpen Moriarty (1824–1896) MA MInstCE was an Australian civil engineer, who undertook a number of important public works in New South Wales in the late nineteenth century. Personal life and education Moriarty was born in County Kerry, ...

MA MInstCE, Engineer in Chief of the New South Wales Harbours and Rivers Department, together with a second lighthouse at Belmore Basin,

Wollongong Wollongong ( ), colloquially referred to as The Gong, is a city located in the Illawarra region of New South Wales, Australia. The name is believed to originate from the Dharawal language, meaning either 'five islands/clouds', 'ground near wate ...

. Both lighthouses were designed by Colonial Architect's Office, then under Colonial Architect

James Barnet James Johnstone Barnet, (1827 in Almericlose, Arbroath, Scotland – 16 December 1904 in Forest Lodge, Sydney, New South Wales) was the Colonial Architect for Colonial New South Wales, serving from 1862 to 1890. Early life Born the son of a ...

. Tenders were invited in October 1869 by the

Public Works Department This list indicates government departments in various countries dedicated to public works or infrastructure. See also * Public works * Ministry or Board of Public Works, the imperial Chinese ministry overseeing public projects from the Tang ...

, and both lighthouses were constructed by Joseph Mather,

in 1872 and Warden Head Lighthouse in 1873. The original light source was oil wick with a light intensity of 800 cd, with a

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 ...

optical apparatus, which is still present. It displayed a fixed white light (F.W.). In 1889 the lighthouse was relocated to its current location on Warden Head, under the supervision of James Barnet, still the Colonial Architect. In 1920 the light source was replaced with a

carbide lamp Carbide lamps, or acetylene gas lamps, are simple lamps that produce and burn acetylene (C2H2) which is created by the reaction of calcium carbide (CaC2) with water (H2O). Acetylene gas lamps were used to illuminate buildings, as lighthouse b ...

, automated and demanned. The characteristic was changed to a flashing one. In 1922, the keeper's house, no longer required, was relocated to

Milton Milton may refer to: Names * Milton (surname), a surname (and list of people with that surname) ** John Milton (1608–1674), English poet * Milton (given name) ** Milton Friedman (1912–2006), Nobel laureate in Economics, author of '' Free t ...

to be used as a

doctor's office A doctor's office in American English, a doctor's surgery in British English, or a doctor's practice, is a medical facility in which one or more medical doctors, usually general practitioners (GP), receive and treat patients. Description Doct ...

. In 1964 the tower was electrified. The current power source is a 110 V DC

battery Battery most often refers to: * Electric battery, a device that provides electrical power * Battery (crime), a crime involving unlawful physical contact Battery may also refer to: Energy source *Automotive battery, a device to provide power t ...

, charged from the

mains electricity Mains electricity or utility power, power grid, domestic power, and wall power, or in some parts of Canada as hydro, is a general-purpose alternating-current (AC) electric power supply. It is the form of electrical power that is delivered to h ...

. The current light source is a 120 V, 1,000 W,

quartz halogen lamp A halogen lamp (also called tungsten halogen, quartz-halogen, and quartz iodine lamp) is an incandescent lamp consisting of a tungsten filament sealed in a compact transparent envelope that is filled with a mixture of an inert gas and a small ...

with an intensity of 28,000 cd, visible for The current light characteristic is a group of two flashes every 10 seconds (Fl.(2)W. 10s).''List of Lights'' In the 1940s a car park was developed at Warden Head by the Ulladulla Council to encourage visitors to the lighthouse. In 2008 the lighthouse was renovated. The

lead Lead is a chemical element with the symbol Pb (from the Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a heavy metal that is denser than most common materials. Lead is soft and malleable, and also has a relatively low melting point. When freshly cu ...

based paint was stripped, the tower was repainted, and structural repairs were made.

Light keepers

The first Lighthouse keeper was William Gambell. Records of the Ulladulla public school show he had five children at the school. Records of the Milton Post Office of 1904 list "Hansen J. Lighthouse keeper (Ulladulla)". The Ulladulla Post Office directory of 1904 lists "Brassington A, - lighthouse keeper".

Structure

The tower is made of riveted wrought iron plates forming the shell. The plates which were created Joseph Mather's foundry at

and assembled on the original site on the Ulladulla Breakwater. It is high, with an additional buried in the

concrete Concrete is a composite material composed of fine and coarse aggregate bonded together with a fluid cement (cement paste) that hardens (cures) over time. Concrete is the second-most-used substance in the world after water, and is the most wi ...

foundation. The structure is divided by three timber floors, connected by iron ladders. On top of the wrought iron shell is a small balcony supported by cast iron brackets, with a plain iron handrail.

Warden Head

Warden Head is named after

shipwright Shipbuilding is the construction of ships and other floating vessels. It normally takes place in a specialized facility known as a shipyard. Shipbuilders, also called shipwrights, follow a specialized occupation that traces its roots to befor ...

s brothers David and James Warden. It was previously called Long Nose Point.

Site operation and visiting

The light and the tower are operated by

Transport for NSW Transport for NSW, sometimes abbreviated to TfNSW, and pronounced as Transport for New South Wales, is an agency of the New South Wales Government established on 1 November 2011, and is the leading transport and roads agency in New South Wales, ...

. The grounds are accessible by road and parking is available, but the tower itself is closed to the public.

Notes

References

* * * * * * * * * * * {{Authority control Lighthouses completed in 1873 Lighthouses in New South Wales 1873 establishments in Australia Relocated buildings and structures in Australia