March 5 2011

After almost 122 years of operation the mainlight at Eddystone Point in North East Tasmania was switched off on the 23rd of February 2011.It has been replaced by a plastic balcony mounted beacon.

The enormous allure of the light for heritage and tourism purposes has been savagely reduced; sunset trips to the light were an immense attraction to Tasmanians and mainland visitors (where you could watch the powerful rays of the light streak across the land and seascape). Now all you get is a view of a "Tupperware" light blinking on the rail. This is a severe blow to tourism on the east coast of Tasmania.

Lighthouses of Australia (LOA) are concerned that such an iconic light could be switched off without any public consultation. Eddystone was the last 1st-order working light in Tasmania and is a key part of the states maritime heritage.

We appreciate that lighthouses as navigational aids are becoming less important to commercial shipping and as a self funded government organisation, The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA), the custodians of the lighthouse, are required to provide efficient & effective aids to navigation around the coast. However, AMSA undertook this change without any community consultation.

Eddystone Point is one of six remaining lighthouses in Australia still operating magnificent Fresnel lenses on mercury troughs. The others are : Cape Byron, Cape Leeuwin, Cape Naturaliste, Rottnest Is, Cape Schanck. In the case of Eddystone Point two main issues have been used in an attempt to justify the downgrading of the light. These are:

Firstly, the custodians of the site, the Aboriginal Lands Council (ALCT) are concerned that Short-tailed Shearwaters were striking the light when they were returning to Tasmania to breed. One option that could be trailed is the conversion to low wattage of the lamp source. This has already been done successfully to a number of first order lights and may reduce the number of bird strikes. To date there has been no scientific advice as to why the birds may strike the lantern. Scientific advice should to be sought in an effort to determine the reasons behind the occurrence of bird strikes. Once understood, a valid solution may become clear.

Secondly, the ALCT has expressed an interest in opening the light for guided tours. The mercury trough has been raised as a reason for not allowing tours to take place until all of the mercury has been removed, something that can’t be done with the light still operating. This reason looses a great deal of it’s validity when you consider that other lights with mercury troughs have operated tours for many years, as the mercury is contained within the trough it does not present a health issue.

LOA understands and accepts that it is desirable in the longer term to remove mercury from all the lights for maintenance reasons. This has been successfully achieved at a number of lights in the UK with the modification of existing troughs to accommodate a large bearing to replace the mercury. Externally this modification cannot be seen and therefore is a good compromise in maintaining the heritage value of these magnificent examples of Victorian engineering.

LOA shares the same belief as that of the wider public that the remaining lights listed above, representing some of the few intact examples of Australia's maritime heritage, should all remain in service and be maintained as there is precious little of our maritime or other heritage left in Australia. The reality is that working heritage is always the best option for long-term conservation and the cost of operating the lights is minimal. It’s the cost of maintaining the heritage building structures that is the driving force. There needs to be open creative discussion on the alternatives of how this can be funded. This open discussion is something that should have occurred prior to the changes at Eddystone.

It would be of no surprise to find out that there were plans for the downgrading of other lights as well as Eddystone. The role of the lights as main navigational aids are diminishing and in some cases gone. The perplexing issue of maintenance and upkeep of the remaining heritage structures is an issue we are all going have to come to terms with and make concerted efforts through consultation to resolve.

Can anybody imagine Cape Byron or Cape Leeuwin being downgraded to plastic beacons or worse still extinguished altogether?

Photo of Eddystone Lighthouse provided by Garry Searle. Click here for his web site.