Old Burnett Heads Light

The Old Burnett Heads Light is an inactive lighthouse which used to be located on the south side of the Burnett River entrance, in Burnett Heads, Queensland, Australia. It was relocated to the Burnett Heads Lighthouse Holiday Park. It is one of only two lighthouse surviving to be constructed of timber frame clad with weatherboards, the other being the original Cleveland Point Light.[2]

Old Burnett Heads Light
Old Burnett Heads Light, 2010
Queensland
LocationBurnett Heads
Queensland
Australia
Coordinates24°45′48.96″S 152°24′32.83″E
Year first constructed1873
Automated1932
Deactivated1971
Constructiontimber frame clad with weatherboards
Tower shapetapered hexagonal tower with balcony and lantern[1]
Markings / patternwhite tower, red lantern dome
Tower height30 feet (9.1 m)
Original lensfifth order Fresnel lens
ARLHS numberAUS-281

History
The Burnett Heads Lighthouse Holiday Park

In the early 1870s Comboyuro Point Light and Cowan Cowan Point Light, two of the lighthouses on Moreton Island were upgraded. A higher tower with a better apparatus was constructed for Comboyuro Point and an improved apparatus was constructed for Cowan Cowan Point. The old apparatus from Comboyuro Point was installed at Cleveland Point Light. The apparatus from Cowan Cowan Point was installed at the old tower from Comboyuro Point, and the tower was installed at the entrance to Burnett River.[3] The date of this installation is given as either 1873[4][5] or 1874.[6] Until 1932 it was occupied by a lighthouse keeper. In 1932 the light was converted to acetylene gas (carbide lamp), automated and demanned.[7]

The lighthouse operated until 1971 when it was replaced by the New Burnett Heads Light. It was then relocated about 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) inland into Burnett River and restored. The concrete base and the steps of the lighthouse are still present next to the new tower.[7] The original fifth-order Fresnel lens is still mounted in the tower.[8]

Site operation and visiting
Plans for the conversion to automatic operation, 1920

The site and the lighthouse are managed by the Bundaberg Regional Council. The Burnett Heads Lighthouse Holiday Park is open, but the tower is closed to the public.[5]

See also

Notes
  1. Rowlett says square though the plans clearly show a hexagonal form.
  2. AHD8651.
  3. Davenport 1986, p. 169. Note that Bundaberg Regional Library says the tower itself was from Cowan Cowan Point.
  4. Bundaberg Regional Library.
  5. Rowlett.
  6. Davenport 1986, p. 169.
  7. Lighthouses of Australia Inc.
  8. Flotwell 2003.

References
  • Rowlett, Russ. "Lighthouses of Australia: Southern Queensland". The Lighthouse Directory. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Retrieved 14 November 2010.
  • "The Old Burnett Heads Lighthouse". Lighthouses of Queensland. Lighthouses of Australia Inc.
  • Flotwell, Annette (August 2003). "Annette Flotwell's East Coast Lighthouse Trip: Part 2". Lighthouses of Australia Inc Bulletin (4). Archived from the original on 22 December 2010. Retrieved 28 November 2010.
  • "Cleveland Lighthouse, Shore St North, Cleveland, QLD, Australia (Place ID 8651)". Australian Heritage Database. Department of the Environment.
  • "Historic Burnett Heads Lighthouse" (PDF). Bundaberg Regional Library.
  • "Cleveland Lighthouse (former) (entry 600772)". Queensland Heritage Register. Queensland Heritage Council. Retrieved 13 July 2015.
  • Davenport, Winifred (1986). Harbours & Marine: Port and Harbour Development in Queensland from 1824 to 1985. Brisbane: Department of Harbours & Marine.


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