Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2024L00074:reg:2023:p11
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2024L00074
Segment Type: reg
Provision Reference: reg 2023 (pt 11/15)
Character Range: 28108–30901

5 W.
    Hawkesbury Island, N. 9 15 to 4 0 W. North-west reef, its apparent termination, N. 38 50 W."[xi]

Vessels regularly passed through the Torres Strait in the first half of the nineteenth century, increasingly so after Philip Parker King recommended traversing the inner route in 1833.[xii] In 1834, the British East India Company's trading monopoly was broken and Sydney-based traders took more interest in the western Pacific as they were able to supply the Chinese market with goods such as beche-de-mer and sandalwood. The strategic importance of shipping routes to Queensland's north stimulated the establishment of the Somerset settlement on the eastern coast of Cape York, just south of the tip, looking over Albany Passage to Albany Island. Queensland had hopes that Somerset would become a 'second Singapore'.[xiii]
In 1872, Queensland annexed the islands up to 60 miles from Cape York. The Somerset settlement was moved to Thursday Island in 1875-77 and in 1879, the remaining islands were annexed and the Torres Strait islands became part of Queensland.[xiv]

  3.4  Building a lighthouse

Why Goods Island?
The reefs and shoals of the Great Barrier Reef, at the southern end of the inner route, and in the Torres Strait, were notoriously dangerous for shipping. Ipili Reef, close to Goods Island, claimed several ships, including the paddle steamer Phoenix (1855).[xv] There were 64 wrecks on the inner route between 1840 and 1850.[xvi] The importance of trade with India and China, as well as the developing pearling industry, put pressure on the Queensland government to install navigational aids in the Torres Strait.

On 14 July 1882, the Torres Strait pearling industry wrote to the Colonial Secretary requesting a light at the western end of the Torres Strait. Pearling began in the Torres Strait in 1868 with 16 pearling firms operating on Thursday Island in 1877 and Goods Island was one of the key bases for the Torres Strait pearling industry. The request was referred to the Colonial Treasurer as minister responsible for ports and harbours and then to the port master, G.P. Heath for a report. Heath agreed that a light was essential.[xvii]

Booby Island to the west of Goods Island had previously been suggested as a potential lighthouse site at the 1873 Inter-colonial Conference, however no action had been taken. Heath had already established a number of navigational aids on the Queensland coast, initially harbour lights and beacons, and added lighthouses when new ports opened in the more treacherous waters on the North Queensland coast.

A signal station had previously been established on Goods Island c. 1877, and it was determined by Heath that the signalman already stationed on the island could also operate a lighthouse. Heath wrote in his annual