Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2022L01056:reg:2022:p12
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2022L01056
Segment Type: reg
Provision Reference: reg 2022 (pt 12/13)
Character Range: 33001–35696

Sir John Forrest KCMC
Premier of the Colony
13th December 1895

The Notice to Mariners on 10 December 1986 read:
    The Marine Board has been notified that the new light at Cape Leeuwin (W.A) will be displayed on and after to-day. The light is a revolving one, of the Feux Eclairs, or lightning flash lights, type, and will show a single flash of white light for five seconds, duration of flash one-fifth seconds. The tower is cylindrical in form, 135ft in height from base to vane, and is of natural stone colour. The focal plane of the light is 185 ft above high water, and the light will be visible all round the horizon from a distance of 19 ¾ miles in clear weather. A subsidiary light formerly mentioned will not be exhibited. The approximate position of the new lighthouse is latitude 34deg 22min south, longitude 115deg 8min east. The necessity of exhibiting a light on the extreme point of Cape Leeuwin for the guidance of mariners has long been recognised by those trading around the Cape[xxii].

Equipment when built
Upon completion, the lighthouse, composed of a total of seven levels and stood 128 ft (39 m) tall. The tower base was more than two metres thick and a 176-step iron spiral staircase spanned six levels to the lantern room.
The original light source was a kerosene wick lamp using seven gallons of fuel a night. The Chance Brothers. first-order lens, rotating in a mercury bath[xxiii], produced 250,000 candelas, visible for 30 miles on a clear night. The red subsidiary light originally intended for the lighthouse was transferred to Bathurst Point Lighthouse, WA in 1900 after it was revealed Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse did not have a space built to accommodate it [xxiv].
Three keepers were stationed at the lighthouse.
Figure 12. Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse 1st Order Chance Brothers Lens. Image courtesy of the National Archives of Australia, NAA: A9568, 7/10/6 (© Commonwealth of Australia, National Archives of Australia)
3.6 Lighthouse keepers
Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse was manned for nearly 100 years from 1896 until 1995. Initially, one chief lighthouse keeper and two assistant keepers were stationed at the site. The keepers and their families resided on-site in keepers quarters constructed at the same time as the lighthouse. At some point prior to 1908, a third cottage was built to house an additional assistant keeper brought on to relieve duties and cut firewood[xxv].
Of all the keepers stationed at Cape Leeuwin, Felix von Luckner proved infamous. Von Luckner briefly served as assistant keeper before joining the German navy. He went on to become a highly decorated German naval officer during World War I (1915-1918). Over the course of his navy career on