Cape Moreton is a rocky headland at the north eastern tip of

Moreton Island Moreton Island (Mulgumpin) is an island on the eastern side of Moreton Bay on the coast of South East Queensland, Australia. The Coral Sea lies on the east coast of the island. Moreton Island lies northeast of the Queensland capital, Brisbane. ...

South East Queensland South East Queensland (SEQ) is a bio-geographical, metropolitan, political and administrative region of the state of Queensland in Australia, with a population of approximately 3.8 million people out of the state's population of 5.1 million. T ...

, Australia. The surrounding area is part of the

Moreton Island National Park Gheebulum Kunungai (Moreton Island) is a national park which covers 98% of Moreton Island (Mulgumpin) in Queensland, Australia, 58km northeast of Brisbane. It has three main townships, Bulwer, Cowan Cowan and Kooringal. The island is home to ...

Flinders Reef Flinders Reef is a small isolated reef near Moreton Island, north-east of Cape Moreton in South East Queensland, Australia. It has the highest number of coral species of any subtropical reef system along Australia's east coast and is the neares ...

is north-west of Cape Moreton. The outcrop is mostly composed of

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) ...

, but also some conglomerate, siltstone and shale. The sand dunes of Moreton Island were formed by sand caught on and built up behind these rocks, in a process that began at least 500,000 years ago.

History

On the 17 May 1770,

James Cook James Cook (7 November 1728 Old Style date: 27 October – 14 February 1779) was a British explorer, navigator, cartographer, and captain in the British Royal Navy, famous for his three voyages between 1768 and 1779 in the Pacific Ocean an ...

sighted and named the point Cape Morton. By 1959 the island's second settlement begin at Cape Moreton. At one point a school was operating at Cape Moreton with a total of 15 children. Until 1952 when it was abandoned, a telegraph line reached the point, via Amity on

North Stradbroke Island North Stradbroke Island ( Jandai: ''Minjerribah''), colloquially ''Straddie'' or ''North Straddie'', is an island that lies within Moreton Bay in the Australian state of Queensland, southeast of the centre of Brisbane. Originally there was onl ...

. On 24 February 1894, the

Aarhus Aarhus (, , ; officially spelled Århus from 1948 until 1 January 2011) is the second-largest city in Denmark and the seat of Aarhus Municipality. It is located on the eastern shore of Jutland in the Kattegat sea and approximately northwest ...

sank about two nautical miles from the cape after striking Smith's Rocks. The

hospital ship A hospital ship is a ship designated for primary function as a floating medical treatment facility or hospital. Most are operated by the military forces (mostly navies) of various countries, as they are intended to be used in or near war zones. I ...

Centaur A centaur ( ; grc, κένταυρος, kéntauros; ), or occasionally hippocentaur, is a creature from Greek mythology with the upper body of a human and the lower body and legs of a horse. Centaurs are thought of in many Greek myths as being ...

was sunk close to Cape Moreton in 1943 when a Japanese submarine torpedoed the ship, taking the lives of 268 people. The wreck was found on the 20 December 2009 in a steep walled gulley, 2,059 m below the ocean surface. The ''

MV Pacific Adventurer MV ''Pacific Mariner'', formerly MV ''Pacific Adventurer'', is a 1123 TEU geared multi-purpose container ship that gained notoriety after causing Queensland's largest oil spill on the east coast of Australia in March 2009. The ship is owned by ...

'' lost containers in high seas created by

Cyclone Hamish Severe Tropical Cyclone Hamish was a powerful tropical cyclone that caused extensive damage to the Great Barrier Reef and coastal Queensland, Australia, in March 2009. The eighth named storm of the 2008–09 Australian region cyclone season, Hami ...

and caused the

2009 southeast Queensland oil spill The 2009 southeast Queensland oil spill occurred off the coast of southeast Queensland, Australia on 11 March 2009, when 230 tonnes of fuel oil, 30 tonnes of other fuel and 31 shipping containers containing 620 tonnes of ammonium nitrate spilled ...

. The containers were located after a 10-day search, about off the coast of Cape Moreton.

Lighthouse

Cape Moreton Light Cape Moreton Light, also listed as North Point Range Rear Light, is a heritage-listed active lighthouse located on Cape Moreton, a rocky headland located at the north eastern tip of Moreton Island, a large sand island on the eastern side of ...

was the first

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 ...

established in Queensland. The tall structure was constructed of locally quarried

, and was built in 1857. 35 "good conduct" prisoners were used for labour. A

pilot station Pilot Station ( esu, Tuutalgaq) is a city in Kusilvak Census Area, Alaska, United States. The population was 568 at the 2010 census, up from 550 in 2000. Geography Pilot Station is located at (61.936050, -162.883403), on the northern bank of t ...

was established at Bulwer on the northern end of the island in 1848. At one time there was a total of seven lighthouses in operation on the island. Cape Moreton Lighthouse Complex, consisting of the lighthouse, three keepers' cottages and associated structures, was registered on the

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 ...

in 1981.

References

External links

* {{1stVoyageCookAus

Moreton Moreton may refer to: People Given name * Moreton John Wheatley (1837–1916), British Army officer and Bailiff of the Royal Parks Surname * Alice Bertha Moreton (1901–1977), English sculptor, draughtsman and artist * Andrew Moreton, a p ...

History

Lighthouse

See also

References

External links