Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2024L00163:reg:2023:p12
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2024L00163
Segment Type: reg
Provision Reference: reg 2023 (pt 12/14)
Character Range: 31425–34250

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 unlit coast between Cape Moreton and Port Stephens.[xviii] Marine Board President Captain Hixson, who held a grand plan to light the coast of NSW "like a highway", recommended that a lighthouse be erected on Seal Rocks, rather than on the mainland on Sugarloaf Point.[xix] As explained by Garry Searle in First Order: Australia's high of lighthouses, 'These rocks were a navigational turning point and steamers leaving Sydney at night arrived there before daylight'.[xx] However it was a further ten years before funds were allocated towards the construction of the Lighthouse.

In April 1873, the Marine Board attempted to visit Seal Rocks with Colonial Architect James Barnet, however they found it impossible to land on any of the offshore locations.[xxi] It was decided that a new site on Sugarloaf Point be selected instead, and the area for a lighthouse was marked out on the mainland.[xxii] The first sum of £10,000 was placed on the estimates and in October 1873 was voted in for a Lighthouse on Seal Rocks.[xxiii]

  3.5 Building a lighthouse
Design and construction
Once the funds were made available, Barnet prepared plans for the proposed lightstation. The designs featured a rendered brick tower with curved balustrades and an external stairway, and the larger lightstation included three Regency-style keepers' cottages.
Tenders were invited in February 1874, and a site visit was arranged for Barnet, the tenderers and some of the Marine Board, landing in Seal Rocks Bay. In April 1874, the calls for tender were readvertised as no tenders had been accepted.[xxiv]

The tender of Mr John McLeod, £13,383, was accepted shortly afterwards which included the erection of the lighthouse and quarters, the fixing of the lantern and carriage, as well as the road to Myall Lake.[xxv] The contractors also constructed a 1500 feet long jetty at Sugarloaf Bay and Boat Beach primarily for the offloading of construction materials for the lightstation.[xxvi]

In November 1873, a 16-panel 1st order lens was ordered from Messrs. Chance Bros. & Co., a prominent company located near Birmingham, England. In May 1874, Chance Bros. recommended that a 4th order subsidiary dioptric apparatus be added to the order to assist lighting the rocks below the mainland. The lantern and subsidiary light were delivered to Sydney and landed safely at Seal Rocks bay by July 1875.[xxvii]

Construction of the keepers' cottages and various outbuildings required the headland to be cut into and the construction of stone retaining walls in order to provide the cottages with shelter.