Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2024L00163:reg:2023:p11
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2024L00163
Segment Type: reg
Provision Reference: reg 2023 (pt 11/14)
Character Range: 28736–31678

Australian lighthouses are lit and extinguished automatically using mains power, diesel generators, and solar-voltaic systems.

  3.2 The Commonwealth Lighthouse Service
When the Australian colonies federated in 1901, they decided that the new Commonwealth government would be responsible for coastal lighthouses—that is, major lights used by vessels travelling from port to port—but not the minor lights used for navigation within harbours and rivers. There was a delay before this new arrangement came into effect. Existing lights continued to be operated by the states.
Since 1915, various Commonwealth departments have managed lighthouses. AMSA, established under the Australian Maritime Safety Authority Act 1990 (Cth), is now responsible for operating Commonwealth lighthouses and other aids to navigation, along with its other functions.
  3.3 Sugarloaf Point: a history
Aboriginal history
The history of the Myall Lakes National Park stretches back many thousands of years. The landscape and its natural resources provided for the Worimi Aboriginal People. Family clans upheld hunter-gatherer lifestyles and thrived off the native fauna and flora, the coastal waterways and freshwater lakes. The park contains a number of significant sites showcasing this extensive history, including middens, scar trees, petroglyphs and campsites.
Further consultation with Traditional Stakeholders is required.

Early European history
In May of 1770, Captain Cook sailed along the NSW coastline in the Endeavour and made the first European record of the coastal area adjacent to the Myall Lakes, including Sugarloaf Point and the rocky outcrops known as Seal Rocks.[xiv] It is believed that the first Europeans to set foot in the area were survivors of the Jane, the Edwin, and the Governor shipwrecks in 1816 which occurred within the vicinity of the rocks. Allegedly five survivors made it ashore, including the captain of the Edwin, and travelled by foot to the settlement of Newcastle.[xv]

In 1825, the area formed part of a land grant to the newly established Australian Agricultural Company. However, much of the coastal area was reverted back to the Crown.[xvi]

  3.4  Why a lighthouse on Sugarloaf Point?

By the early to mid-19th century, shipping along the coast had increased exponentially. Port Macquarie and Moreton Bay to the north had developed into penal settlements, and cedar trade along the coast meant that Port Stephens, to the south of Sugarloaf, was regularly used as a haven for shipping. It became obvious that the rocky outcrops of Sugarloaf Point and Seal Rocks were shipping hazards. A number of ships were wrecked around this time including the Sally in 1843 and the schooner the Mary Ann only one month after.[xvii]

A Select Committee of the NSW Legislative Council was appointed in 1863 to consider the construction of additional lighthouses on the coast. The Committee identified that there was 600 kilometres of