Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2023L01286:front:0:p13
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2023L01286
Segment Type: other
Provision Reference: 
Character Range: 32930–35760

July 1860 and awarded to Melbourne contractor Robert Huckson for £14,950. Construction started shortly after, however issues arose within months of commencement with masons complaining of poor provisions and threatening to leave the island. It was found that Huckson had established a 'Truck System' on the island where he "had compelled them [the workers] to enter into a new contract by which the wages were higher, but by which they were to purchase all their provisions from him at an exorbitant price".[21] By 1862, Huckson was declared bankrupt by reason of 'heavy losses in a contract for erecting lighthouse at Gabo Island, and pressure of creditors' liabilities'.[22]
The contract was handed over to Alexander Cairns and Henry Mills on 20 February 1862, and by May of that same year it was reported that the lighthouse was complete.[23] On 20 August, Flinders Light was officially extinguished and the new Gabo Island Lighthouse was lit for the first time.
Equipment when built
Upon completion, Gabo Island Lighthouse stood as a 47 metre, circular dressed granite structure. The tower supported a Chance Bros. 12' diameter lantern and 920 millimetre 6 panel 315° 1st Order fixed lens with 45° catoptric reflector. The light was recorded as having an intensity of 7000 c.d. and a range of 20 miles in good, clear weather.[24]
The tower was accompanied by a new head keeper's cottage and two assistant keeper cottages. Although the Flinders Light lantern was removed, the wooden structure remained on the island for a number of years as well as the former keepers' cottages.
  3.6 Lighthouse keeping
The lighthouse was originally operated by a head keeper, two assistant keepers and their respective families. Although inhabitants were secluded from the mainland, at various times throughout the years Gabo Island would be filled with a number of workmen quarrying the island's granite, effectively breaking the isolation.[25]
Telegraphic communications were established on the Island in 1870 with a line reaching across the channel on posts and eventually run along the seabed. A telegraph office, erected beside the assistant keeper cottages, was originally of timber design until 1887 when a mass concrete residence and office was designed and constructed in its place.[26]
Throughout the duration of World War II, naval personnel were stationed on Gabo Island in corrugated iron huts, and air force personnel manned a radar station erected on the site of Flinders Light.[27]
Figure 15. Photograph of Gabo Island Lighthouse and keepers, 1978. NAA: A6180, 25/7/78/9 (© Commonwealth of Australia, National Archives of Australia)
There is no concise date on when the keepers were removed from the Island and the site de-staffed.
  3.7 Chronology of major events
The following table details the major events to have occurred