Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2023L00078:reg:2023:p11
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2023L00078
Segment Type: reg
Provision Reference: reg 2023 (pt 11/13)
Character Range: 28898–31787

Flinders. Named 'Bass Strait', this passage was traversed by countless ships that had previously been forced to journey around the south coast of Tasmania.[11]

The Waterhouse Group Islands were named after Captain Henry Waterhouse, a British Officer of the Royal Navy who was heavily involved in establishing early colonial settlements throughout the south-east of Australia. Swan Island was among those listed within the Waterhouse Group Islands.[12]

Knowledge on the history of Swan Island following Bass and Flinders' expedition and prior to the construction of the lighthouse is limited, however it is understood seal hunting was prevalent in the region from at least 1805.[13]

  3.5 Planning a lighthouse

Why Swan Island?
In 1841, Sir John Franklin, the Lieutenant Governor of Van Diemen's Land, recommended to Sir George Gipps, the Governor of New South Wales, that two lights be constructed in a section of Bass Strait known as Banks Strait. Following the settlement of Port Phillip in 1835, shipping between Melbourne, Hobart and Launceston had increased substantially. As a result, requests for safer passage through the Strait had grown in abundance. Swan Island was recommended as a lighthouse site as the Island's position harnessed the potential to provide a landfall mark for ships bound for Melbourne and northern Tasmanian ports from the South Tasman Sea.[14]

Construction
Construction on the Swan Island lighthouse was led by ex-convict Charles Watson and his team of convicts. Prior to construction, Watson's team had been working on the Goose Island Lighthouse to the north of Banks Strait, however the delayed delivery of a lantern then forced the builders to start on the Swan Island Lighthouse with Governor Franklin laying the first stone on 22 November 1843. At a cost of 2,300 pounds, construction saw the quarrying of granite from the Island itself.[15]
Figure 11. Drawings and floor plans of five Tasmanian lighthouses built in 1840s. From left to right: Low Head, South Bruny, Deal Island, Swan Island, and Goose Island (1848). Image courtesy of the National Archives of Australia. NAA: A9568, 5/10/1 (© Commonwealth of Australia, National Archives of Australia)[16]
Figure 12. Swan Island Lighthouse - Light Apparatus as Installed 1845/1846. Image courtesy of the National Archives of Australia. NAA: A9568, 5/9/3 (© Commonwealth of Australia, National Archives of Australia)[17]

Equipment when built
The lighthouse was completed in late 1845 and the light was first exhibited on 1 November of the same year making Swan Island the first finished lighthouse within Bass Strait.
Upon completion, Swan Island Lighthouse stood as a 27m, white-painted, granite rubble tower fitted with a catadioptric lens system. The original light was that of a 12' 11/2" diameter lantern by Wilkins and Co. with fixed silvered upper and lower mirrors.
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