Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2020L01547:front:0:p13
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2020L01547
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Character Range: 34566–37456

casks cement, and 75 sheep having been landed in less than 24 hours. The lighthouse will be a solid and elegant structure….

   …..[the walls are] 3 feet 8 inches thick at base,
   tapering to 2 feet 2 inches….

   …..the quarters will accommodate three keepers…. 12

 Work was carried out effectively and the lighthouse was completed in October 1881, four months  within the contract time. The overall cost of the construction, including apparatus, amounted to
 £25,981 following completion.

   11   Searle, G., First Order (2013), pg. 203.

   12     Quoted in Searle, G., First Order (2013), pg. 203.

  Figure 16. Montague Island Lighthouse first order dioptric holophotal fixed and flashing light (1878)

  Figure 17. Design plan for Montague Island Lighthouse and quarters (James Barnet, 1878)

  Figure 18. Montague Island Lighthouse site plan (James Barnet, 1878)

Equipment when built

 Following construction, Montague lighthouse stood as a 21 m tall circular granite tower with a light source powered by kerosene, providing an intensity of 45,000 cd.

 The 910 mm focal radius, 8 panels, 1st Order Chance Bros. lantern and lens rotated on a roller pedestal which operated by clockwork mechanism and weights in the central tube within the tower.

 The lens revolved every four minutes with:

   "a steady flare for 30 seconds, then an eclipse for 13 seconds, and then a brilliant flash lasting four seconds, followed by another eclipse of 13 seconds' duration." 13

  Figure 19. View of Montague Island Lighthouse, 1917 (NAA, 4746689)

3.6             Lighthouse keepers

 Due to the island's isolation, lightkeeping was
 a demanding livelihood. The arrival of food and supplies from passing steamers lay at the mercy of

 the weather and swell of the surrounding waters.  In 1952, the lightkeepers and their families went without fresh food for 10 days, eventually resorting to hunting wild goats roaming the Island. 14

 Tragedy was also a common theme on the island. The lack of medical assistance available, and the inability to traverse the passage separating the island from the mainland, meant deaths among lightkeepers and their families occured. Head keeper, John Burgess, lost two of his children in the 1880s, one to whooping cough and the other to an unknown illness, and an assistant keeper Charles Townsend died after being thrown from his horse in 1894.

 Mrs John Burgess's letter to the local newspapers exemplified the consequences of isolation in 1894:

   I have been a lighthouse keeper's wife for nearly fifteen years, both at South Solitary and Montague Islands.
   During that period several deaths have occurred in my family and those of the assistants, also accidents. We never could procure assistance till too late; although steamers pass both north and south frequently, they do not seem to see when we have a distress