Maior Lighthouses of Queensland (Part 1] by J. H. THORBURN, B.A. Upon separation from New South Wales on 10 December 1859 George Poynter Heath was born in 1830 in Norfolk, England, the new colony of Queensland acquired 3236 miles of coastline and was educated at Cheltenham College before entering the with many hidden dangers to successful maritime navigation. To Royal Navy as a cadet in 1845. From 1846-53 he was one of assist shipping along the coast the colony received as a legacy the party under the command of Captain Owen Stanley of H.M.S. from New South Wales one solitary lighthouse. This was the "Rattlesnake" engaged in a survey of the north east coast of Cape Moreton lighthouse which had been erected two years Australia and New Guinea. previous in 1857. He retired from active service in 1860 with the rank of The lighthouse stands on the summit of Cape Moreton 382 Lieutenant and was married in February of that year. A few feet above sea level and the tower constructed of stone is 70 months later he sailed for Queensland to take up an appointment feet high.1 It is the only lighthouse ever built of stone on the as Surveyor of the 1st Class in the Department of the Surveyor Queensland coast and is painted white with a red dome. The General. He arrived in Brisbane on 26 August 1860 and his illuminating apparatus fitted was a Catoptric system of the first appointment was gazetted on 1 September.4 During the following order showing a white light and revolving every minute - 15 sec­ eighteen months he was engaged in various marine surveys.5 He onds bright and 45 seconds dull. The Cape Moreton lighthouse was must have impressed his superior officers, for when consideration unique in being fitted with the Catoptric system, all subsequent was given to appointing a person to undertake the general duties lighthouses built being fitted with the Dioptric system. In the of Portmaster for Queensland he was invited to fill the position. former the light is reflected and not gathered and focused by He agreed to accept the combined position of Portmaster and using lenses and prisms, the reflector being some highly polished Marine Surveyor of Queensland at the same salary he had been surface. drawing but that the full allowance should be paid.6 His appoint­ The Catoptric System is the most ancient, and is now nearly ment was gazetted on 25 January 1862 - he was then only 31 obsolete, except on light vessels, where metallic reflectors years of age. A few months later he was appointed a member of of a paraboloid form are still used on account of the pos­ the Marine Board by Letters Patent dated 25 July 1862. He sible danger of the motion.of the vessel breaking the glass reached the rank of Commander before he was placed on the lenses if that type is employed. ... However the modern retired list of the Royal Navy in 1869 and in the same year was improvements in balancing, etc., now render it safe to use elected Chairman of the Marine Board.7 He continued to hold lenses in such positions, and it seems likely that the use the two positions of Portmaster and Chairman of the Marine of the Catoptric system of lighting at sea will entirely die Board conjointly until he officially retired from the service of out.2 the Queensland Government on 30 June 1890. Although James R. Atkinson has said that The government of the colony of Queensland made the first Our coast prior to separation, as far as lights were con­ move toward the regulation of marine traffic along its coastline cerned, was a sort of terra incognita3 in 1862. Firstly there was the appointment of a Portmaster for it was not quite true to say as the writer further claimed the colony and secondly the passing of the "Marine Board Act· that Captain Heath on being appointed Portmaster in 1860 of 1862".8 at once set to work to remedy the above mentioned state of affairs. Apart from the fact that the writer is in error about The duties and Powers of the Marine Board are set out in the date of Captain Heath's appointment as Portmaster it must Section 9 of the Act which reads in part- be remembered that as a servant of the Colonial Government not The Board shall be the Department to undertake the general all his energy or enthusiasm could alter the position that faced superintendence within its jurisdiction of all matters relating him without the necessary finance being voted for the purpose. to the preservation and improvement of all the ports For the first few years funds were short and it was not until harbours and havens navigable creeks and rivers in the 1865 that money was voted for the purpose of lighthouse con­ said Colony and the regulation of shipping and seamen the struction. There is however no doubt whatever that Captain licensing appointment and removal of pilots the maintenance Heath played a significant part in the eventual lighting of the of pilots' establishments the punishment of persons acting Queensland coast. as pilots without a license the amount save herein provided of Page Eighteen Queensland Herilage 1500 1550 Bell, the Chairman of the Select Committee, laid upon the Table BOOBY ISLAND 1890-::::r--------4~------ __J_IOO of the House the Report from, and the Evidence taken before, 4~GOODE ISLAND 1886 the Committee and it was ordered to be printed. Evidence was taken from a number of witnesses, among them being the Portmaster and Marine Surveyor of the Colony, Lieu­ tenant G. P. Heath, R.N., who was examined on four separate occasions, the Admiralty Surveyor in Queensland, Captain Jeffrey, R.N., and the agent for the Australasian Steam Navigation Company, Captain H. O'Reilly. A further six witnesses were also called to give evidence. ~-------_t_--------_L150 The terms of reference under which the Committee was set up were somewhat restrictive, referri71g only to ~ LOW ISLES 1878 ·.. the state of the Harbors and Rivers of this Colony ... ~" Oo~:i::) but the committee had no compunction about widening the scope and indeed claimed it was necessary · .. to include ... the question of the necessity for additional Lighthouses on the coast of Australia, within the colony of \ CAPE CLEVELAND 1879 Queensland. TOWnSVille-~~ I The final Report of the Select Committee is a comparitively BOWen-~DENT ISLAND 1879 ~ short document of only thirteen Sections and, since this com­ ,---------l-200 mittee widened its terms of reference, it is not altogether sur­ Mackay• prising that seven of the total of thirteen Sections deal with light­ houses or harbour lights.1o The Legislative Council also had appointed a Select Committee :¢'NORTH REEF 1878 with the much more specific field of reference- Rockhampton- CAPE CAPRICORN 1875 · .. to enquire into and report upon the requirements of Gladslone-,Y'«BUSTARD HEAD 1868, this Colony, under its increasing trade and commerce, as to -",...-\ :¢'LADY ELLIOTT IS. 1873 the provision of additional lighthouse3 for its coasts and Bundaberg SANDY CAPE 1870 harbors ... 25 DOUBLE ISLAND The Legislative Council Committee restricted itself to pressing POINT 1884 for the erection of lighthouses at Sandy Cape and Bustard Head , I believing that this would provide for the immediate and pressing 1t CAPE MORETON 1857 I, requirements of the trade and commerce of the colony. In Brisbane D Appendices A and B they supported their recommendations by I, showing the relative increase of shipping and tonnage arriving at .~.-- (' ...... -~ ports north of Brisbane during 1862 and 1863. However IL-- -' 'J / -'.- They do not ignore the fact which this enquiry has impressed upon them, that there Queensland, showing major lighthouses and years of completion ot is before the Government of Queens­ lighthouses. land the much larger and more serious task of so lighting what is called the Inner Passage within the Barrier Reef, pilotage dues the superintendence of lights and other that not only the trade to our own rapidly increasing ports sea or harbour marks the placing or removing of moorings may be protected, but that much of the trade with India, the establishment of light and beacon dues ... China, and other countries to the North of this Continent [my emphasis] may be diverted from the Western to the Eastern line of Passage.11 Over the following two years there was a concentration of the efforts of the Portmaster and the Marine Board on putting into operation that section of the Act dealing with pilots and also that dealing with harbour lights. Nothing was done for the provision of coast lights. This state of affairs, while with the benefit of hindsight seems the obvious approach for a young colony and a new department, was not entirely satisfactory to a group of Members of the Legislative Assembly. On 25 May 1864 it was moved in the House (I) That a Select Committee be appointed, with power to send for persons and papers, and leave to sit during any adjournment of this House, to enquire into and report upon the present state of the Harbors and f. .{ Rivers of this Colony, and the steps necessary to be taken ·t- towards deepening and improving the same. '" it (2) That such Committee consist of Mr Macalister, Mr Douglas, Mr Sandeman, Mr R. Cribb, Dr Challinor, and the Mover [Mr Bell]. 9 The Question being put and resolved, the Committee convened for the first time on 27 May and J. P. Bell was called to the Chair. Between then and 31 August the Committee met on 12 occasions; on eleven of these they heard evidence from the cross­ examination of witnesses and on the last they considered a draft Report and approved the final version.