page_title: Cape Don Light
section_title: Structures
hierarchical_section_title: Cape Don Light / Structures
caption_attribution_description: English: Cape Don Light - Tower sections and plans, 1915
context_page_description: Cape Don Light is an active lighthouse located on Cape Don, at the tip of the Cobourg Peninsula, Northern Territory, Australia, in Garig Gunak Barlu National Park, marking the entrance to the Dundas Strait. It is Australia's northernmost traditional lighthouse. The station served on the important route to Darwin, between the peninsula and Melville Island. The tower was constructed in 1915–1917, during the "Golden Age of Australian Lighthouses", and the tower was manned until 1983. During the entire period that the tower was manned it also maintained meteorological records which were well placed to assist in cyclone development tracking. The complex consists of the lighthouse, three residences and ancillary buildings.
  Cape Don was named by Phillip Parker King in 1818, as a compliment to General Sir George Don, the Lieutenant-Governor of Gibraltar.
context_section_description: The tower is 28 metres (92 ft) from the ground to the platform. The base is cylindrical, with an octagonal base. On top of the platform is the original 10-foot, 8-inch (3.25 m) Chance Brothers lantern.
  Accommodations at the site consist of three lighthouse keeper's cottages, constructed from concrete blocks, set on high blocks with reinforced concrete beams. The cottages have timber floors and wide timber verandahs, enclosed with pivoting storm screens. The original roofing was corrugated galvanised iron, replaced by corrugated asbestos cement roofing in one of the houses. Originally, a breezeway divided the houses into two sections, one comprising three rooms and one comprising two larger rooms, with a corridor between them leading to the double doors to the verandah. The building has been altered, and the original breezeway has been converted to a living area.
  Other structures in the complex include small concrete block storage sheds, adjacent to each of the houses, block work sheds around the tower, and some galvanised iron sheds including a powerhouse, a maintenance workshop and a store. At the northern boundary of the complex lies a bore and mill, and an abandoned garden next to it. The original raised water tank is at the center of the complex.
  The path of the original tramway, from the complex to Christies Bay, is still visible, and the narrow gauge tramway itself is partially intact, except towards the bay. At the end of the tramway is a causeway, approximately 90 metres (300 ft) long and 4 metres (13 ft) wide, going through a mangrove swamp into the bay. At its end is a shelter. The jetty no longer exists, though the upright tramway rails which supported it still exist.
caption: Tower plans and sections, 1915
exif: {}