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charged by a diesel generator set in a small engine room building next to the lighthouse. Exactly when these changes were made has not been established, but it probably happened in the 1930s or 1940s, and the station certainly had the generator set and radio-telephone by 1951 (Commonwealth Lighthouse Service 1951). Meanwhile the lighthouse remained lit by kerosene and driven by clockwork.

The keepers had to wait until after the Second World War for any substantial improvements. In March 1952 a visiting engineer recorded that the station was well kept, but noted that the eight horsepower diesel generator engine had undue vibration. The author noted: Houses in bad condition, particularly floors, plates + verandahs and recorded a shortage of water in the second half of the preceding December (Commonwealth Lighthouse Service 1951).

The engineer also wrote: New house, store shed, crane winch and tramway to be erected here. These improvements were made, but not immediately. In December 1953 the houses were deteriorating rapidly, and the same observation was noted again in September 1957. In May 1958 the contractor for new houses … expects to have first house up by end July (Commonwealth Lighthouse Service 1951).

The two new houses, the derrick crane, the winch house and the workshop were probably completed by around 1960, although the available documents do not provide precise dates.

Figure 8 — The lightstation, c. 1950
Undated photograph showing the original keepers' houses, with the engine room in place. Note the absence of any crane or trolley way. There is a rudimentary roof across the chasm in the cliff, presumably for protecting stores and a small boat. (Source: AMSA).

3.5. An automatic lighthouse

Developments in lighthouse technology through the 20th century made the equipment much more reliable. By the time the Commonwealth Lighthouse Service was set up in 1913 it was possible for navigation lights to operate for long periods without attention. That is, they operated automatically, fuelled with cylinders of acetylene gas and using the highly reliable equipment made by the Swedish AGA company. In 1915–1918 the Commonwealth Lighthouse Service constructed a series of seven new automatic acetylene lights to mark the shipping route between Cooktown and the Torres Strait (Rams­botham 1919). Some manned lightstations were converted to the automatic system and de-manned — examples include the light on Pipon Reef which was converted in 1915 (Ramsbotham 1919) and the Cape Bowling Green light, which was conver­ted and de-manned in 1920 (Australian National Maritime Museum undated).

Figure 9 — The lightstation site in 1954
Dent Island Lightstation, survey plan for proposed new quarters and tramway, 10 May 1954. This plan shows the two original keepers' houses still in place, and a proposed new tramway terminating