Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2014L00095:body:0:p16
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undated).

Figure 9 — The lightstation site in 1954
Dent Island Lightstation, survey plan for proposed new quarters and tramway, 10 May 1954. This plan shows the two original keepers' houses still in place, and a proposed new tramway terminating between them. To the north of the lighthouse tower is the engine room (containing the diesel generator set), and to the south of the tower is a fuel store. (Source: AMSA, drawing QS630).

Through the 1970s and 1980s, with further developments in the efficiency of solar-electric lighting systems, with the increasing importance of other aids to navigation such as radar, radio, depth sounders, and satellite global positioning systems (GPS), and with the drive for lower operating costs, the Commonwealth government proposed to automate most or all of its lighthouses. This was contentious (House of Representatives 1984). Among the vocal opponents were small boat operators who did not have radar or GPS and relied on the lighthouses and their keepers. (Buchanan 1994 gives a personal account of this period, from a Queensland lighthouse keeper's point of view).

Ultimately, the scheme to automate and de-man the Commonwealth lights went ahead. In 1983 the light was automated.  The land on which the lightstations stood was handed over to other govern­ment agencies, such as the various state national parks services, and AMSA arranged to lease back the small part of each site that was needed for the un-manned lights.

Figure 10 — The lightstation (likely to date before 1995) Note the building on the far left which has since been removed. (Source: unknown photographer, photograph supplied by Hamilton Island Enterprises)

At Dent Island the light was converted to solar power in 1983 (AMSA 2004). The old Chance Brothers clockwork and kerosene optical apparatus was removed from the lantern room, and a Tideland ML-300 beacon installed on the 1925 mercury float pedestal from which the mercury had been removed. Power for the light came from batteries inside the tower charged by an array of solar panels. In 2010 a Sabik LED 350 beacon replaced the ML-300.

The lightkeepers remained at Dent Island, maintaining and monitoring the light, until the station was de-manned in 1987.

The responsibility for Lots 3 and 4 (on Crown Plan HR2019) passed to the GBRMPA in 1994. Lots 1 and 2 (on Crown Plan HR2019) passed to the GBRMPA in 2003.   AMSA leased two small pieces of land — a 58 m2 area around the tower (Lot 1 on Crown Plan HR2019), and a separate 669 m2 area on the edge of the cliff, retained as a possible site for a new replacement lighthouse and a helicopter landing pad (Lease A on Lot 2 on Crown Plan HR2019) (Figure 13).

The