Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2014L00095:body:0:p22
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2014L00095
Segment Type: other
Provision Reference: 
Character Range: 55210–58025

Commonwealth-owned places. As a result of receiving this advice about the Dent Island case, the Queensland Heritage Council removed from its register all other places owned by the Commonwealth (pers. comm. 2012, Queensland Department of Environment and Heritage Protection).

      * The Register of the National Estate — Dent Island Lightstation was entered in this register in 1980. This listing no longer has any effect on the management of the place, since the EPBC Act has taken over the relevant functions of the Heritage Commission Act 1975.

5.2. Summary statement of significance
The current Commonwealth Heritage List summary is shown in italic type below, with comments interspersed in roman type:

Dent Lighthouse, constructed in 1879, is significant as a light tower built in response to the dramatic expansion of regular coastal shipping along the inner route of the Great Barrier Reef, following the economic development of Northern Queensland (Criterion A.4).

Concerning the name of the place, since 1879 it has been known officially as Dent Island Lighthouse or Dent Island Lightstation — that name should be used in the heritage list. While it is known that the Gnaro people may have had their own name for Dent Island, this has not been recorded on any known document.
As well as being a response to the expansion of shipping, the lighthouse is an important manifestation of the colonial government's policy of investing in infrastructure, such as railways and lighthouses, to encourage the expansion of economic activity.

The Lighthouse is significant as an intact representative example of a timber-framed, iron clad tower (Type B), an adaptation by the Queensland Government of the imported prefabricated type using components from the United Kingdom (Criterion D.2).

The design was not an adaptation of the prefabricated cast iron form as used at Bustard Head (first lit 1868) and Sandy Cape (1870). Rather, it was derived from other sources including the timber lighthouses being built in Canada, with the local invention of using boiler plate sheeting. Type B is not part of a recognised typology, and has no meaning here.

Dent Lighthouse is important as one of a pair of identical lighthouse towers in the Whitsunday Passage, the other being situated at Cape Cleveland (Criterion D.2).

Cape Cleveland is not in the Whitsunday Passage, but about 200 km further north. The two are no longer identical — at Cape Cleveland the stair, weight tube, and timber lining have been removed, and at Dent Island the lantern base has been modified.

The Lightstation Complex of tower, houses, store shed, engine room and combined workshop/radio room, dating from 1879 to c. 1960, are significant as a complete intact example of a Lightstation Complex in Queensland. Later stages of development have