Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2023L01287:reg:2023:p10
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2023L01287
Segment Type: reg
Provision Reference: reg 2023 (pt 10/17)
Character Range: 25816–29097

gradual de-staffing of lighthouses. Acetylene was quickly adopted by the Commonwealth Lighthouse Service from 1915 onwards.

Figure 10. Dalén's system - sunvalve, mixer and flasher (Source: AMSA)

Large dioptric lenses, such as that shown in Figure 8, gradually decreased in popularity due to cost and the move towards unmanned automatic lighthouses. By the early 1900s, Australia had stopped ordering these lenses with the last installed at Eclipse Island in Western Australia in 1927. Smaller Fresnel lenses continued to be produced and installed until the 1970s when plastic lanterns, still utilising Fresnel's technology, were favoured instead. Acetylene remained in use until it was finally phased out in the 1990s.

In the current day, 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 Tasmanian Lighthouse Administration
The table below details the authority of Tasmanian lighthouse management from 1915 to the present.
Time Period  Administration
1915–1927:   Lighthouse District No. 3 (Victoria, New South Wales, Tasmania), Hobart Headquarters.

             Deputy Director of Lighthouses and Navigation, Tasmania.
1927–1963:
             Department of Shipping and Transport, Regional Controller, Tasmania.
1963–1972:
             Department of Transport [III], Regional Controller, Tasmania.
1972–1982:
             Department of Transport and Construction. Victoria-Tasmania Region, Transport Division (Tasmania)
1982–1983:
             Department of Transport [IV] Victoria–Tasmania Region, Hobart Office.

1983–1985    Department of Transport [IV] Tasmanian Region.

1985–1987:   Department of Transport and Communications, Tasmanian Region.

1987–1990:   Australian Maritime Safety Authority.

1991–

  3.4 Tasman Island: a history
Aboriginal history
The following was provided by Tony Brown, former Aboriginal Curator at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery.
  Aboriginal use of Tasmanian off shore islands is well enough documented and the attraction of Tasman Island was undoubtedly its rich food resources of muttonbirds (shearwaters), little penguins and fur seals.
  Memos between the Marine Board of Hobart and the Tasmanian Museum in 1913 detail the discovery by one of the light house keepers of 'a very ancient' Aboriginal skull recovered from a penguin rookery on the top of the island. In 1922 an early historian mentions that 'numbers of Aboriginal stone implements are to be found on the island,' and anecdotal evidence by former lighthouse keepers