Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2022L00967:front:0:p11
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Harbinger Rocks, located off the island's north-west coast, after his ship Harbinger. It was here that an abundance of fur seals and Southern elephant seals were found – the seals were exploited into extinction shortly thereafter.[11]

Governor King, concerned the French navigator Nicolas Baudin was en route to claim the island for France, ordered the ship Cumberland to sail from Sydney in 1800 and claim the land for Britain. Despite failing to claim the land for France, Baudin circumnavigated and mapped the island in 1802.[12]

Hunting remained the primary practice on the island throughout the early 19th century. By 1854, the island had emptied of inhabitants save for the occasional visitors who scoured the land for any remaining seals and wallabies. In 1859, a communications cable was erected across the Bass Strait connecting King Island to Cape Otway in Victoria, and Stanley Head on the Tasmanian mainland.

By the 1880s, the land on King Island was officially opened for grazing and the township of Currie, located along the west coast, developed shortly thereafter.

  3.4 Building a lighthouse

Why Cape Wickham?
The Bass Strait passage was notorious for the number of lives lost in its waters following European settlement in the region. An estimated 60 vessels and over 600 lives were claimed within the passage, significantly from the wrecks of the Neva in 1835 and the Cataraque in 1845.[13]

In 1841, the first recommendation for the lighting of the Bass Strait was made by the governor of Van Diemen's Land, John Franklin. Franklin initially proposed the erection of a lighthouse on the northern coast of King Island and, in 1846, a Select Committee on Light Houses supported this recommendation. The following year however, King Island as a site was dismissed as some voiced concerns that a light on King Island would draw vessels onto Harbinger Reefs – a submerged collection of reefs located several miles west of the Island. Instead, favour was diverted to the construction of a light at Cape Otway along the Victorian coastline.[14]

Despite the construction of a new light on Cape Otway, Bass Strait continued to claim lives over the following years. Between the years of 1854 and 1856, no less than six ships were lost in the waters around King Island – occurrences that propelled plans for a Cape Wickham Lighthouse to the forefront. At the Joint Colonial Lighthouse Conference of 1856, it was decided that a lighthouse would be constructed on Cape Wickham, and that it would be built and maintained by Tasmania, Victoria and New South Wales.[15]

Design
Tasmanian-based engineer W B Falconer was chosen to design the light for Cape Wickham. Upon attempting to visit the Island in 1858 for a site inspection,