Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse

Location: Leeuwin Road, Augusta
Coordinate: S34°22.3056′ E115°08.1648′
Contact: +61 8 9758 1920
Opening Hour: 8.45am - 5.00pm

This is one of the those MUST visit in our itinerary. There are lot of historical value to pay a visit for this attraction, and also the location of it. This place really picturesque. We reached here quite late, about an hour before the visits time is over. Cloudy and blue sky keep changing just like a big curtain. Even drizzling at times. We quickly paid the entrance fees and entered to lighthouse's area.

Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse is situated at the most south-westerly point on the mainland of the Australian Continent, standing at the point where the Indian Ocean and Southern Ocean meet. This is the main reason we came here to view both giant ocean meet. For us, it is quite rare to stand on mainland to see both ocean.

The force of these oceans did bring disaster to some ship. While we were there, we did see some plaque over there dedicated to those ship, such as HMAS Nizam with ten sailors aboard lost their lives off Cape Leeuwin in 1945.

The lighthouse is important meteorological site from which data is collected, the tower stands 39 metres high from ground level and 56 metres above sea level. Its piercing beam, which has an intensity of one million candles, shines over the surrounding rugged sea and landscape for 26 nautical miles or 48 kilometres.

Built from 1895 to 1896 the tower and cottages are built of local limestone. The Cape Leeuwin Light was first mooted in 1881, but took 15 years to eventuate. Disputes raged over the best site for the lighthouse. Also, until the Kalgoorlie-Coolgardie gold rushes Western Australia was the poorest State, and with no assistance from the Eastern States, it was unable to proceed with a project of this size. Further delays occurred when it was found the the initial test bores that showed bedrock at 2.5 metres had only found a rock shelf and it was then necessary to excavate to 6.7 metres. The original 1895 plan included two lights. The present high white light tower and in front of it, a low red light tower. Although the foundations for this low tower were completed, the structure was never built because it was considered that a second light would cause confusion and draw ships closer to the Cape.

The lighthouse was manually operated until 1982 by kerosene burner mechanism. Manually operated!!! The poor person who used to operate it had to carry two 30kg cans of kerosene to the very top every 4 hours. One of the last lighthouses in the world to still operate on such a rudimentary system, it was finally converted to electricity in 1982 and automated in 1992.

One can get more Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse's information from the following:
http://www.lighthouse.net.au/lights/wa/Cape%20Leeuwin/Cape%20Leeuwin.htm