South West Life

When you see a lighthouse, you know it's because there's dangerous waters around - which all makes for interesting history. Cape Naturaliste Lighthouse is no different, with it's fair share of shipwrecks, ghost stories, even an explosion.

The waters around Cape Naturaliste can be dangerous for the unguided. At least 12 ships in the past have found this out, many of them American Whalers. By the early 1800's, it was obvious that some form of guidepost was sorely needed, so to mark out a safe landing place on the shore a 30 foot pole was erected and a barrel placed on top. Soon after a lantern was placed in top of the pole so that the safe landing place could be seen at night. I guess you could call this the first Cape Naturaliste Lighthouse.

In 1873, the lantern on a pole was replaced by a wooden structure which became the first real lighthouse. Then this was replaced in 1903 by the limestone lighthouse, which still stands today.

Building a limestone lighthouse in 1903 meant carting most of the materials by bullock wagons from the quarry around a mile away. Other more specific materials, such as the lens, came by sea. The lens and it's turntable weighed over 12 tonnes and cost $11,000 back then (today it's valued at $5 million). Of course, there were "incidents" during its construction. One report is that a jar of mercury, which was being unloaded from ship docked at the Quindalup Jetty, fell into the sea. Being valuable stuff, one of the sailors dived into the water to try and recover it but drowned in the attempt to bring it to the surface. Mercury is not only valuable but very heavy.

When they tried again to locate the jar the following day, it couldn't be found. The heavy jar had sunk into the sand somewhere. So to this day, the valuable mercury in a jar sits there in the waters off Quindalup. Perhaps a buried treasure waiting to be discovered.

The lighthouse originally had three keepers running it, so cottages were built in 1904. Life wasn't easy as a lighthouse keeper. The conditions were poor, you got no holidays, and your main job was to rewind the clockwork and maintain the kerosene pressure. The lighthouse keepers would often work for years at a time without a change, so they stayed in the cottages with their families. Supplies were delivered once a fortnight from Busselton.

The cottages are still there today, and one of them is reported to be haunted, after maintenance workers staying there woke up with cold sweats and seeing something hovering over them - apparently.

Of course, you can't have a lighthouse without shipwreck stories. Cape Naturaliste Lighthouse has many, but one of the most interesting is the Carnarvon Castle, which caught fire off the coast in 1907. The ship was a fair way out to sea, and the crew members had to jump ship. The 14 survivors floated in lifeboats in the Indian Ocean for 27 days before reaching Cape Naturaliste. The lighthouse keeper at the time, Patrick Baird, and his family, took them in and cared for them until they were OK to travel again.

Other shipwreck stories are common in this area, often involving the lighthouse keepers plucking people out of the stormy sea.

And what about the fireball? Patrick Baird was having an eventful year in 1907. He had already saved the people from the Carnarvon Castle shipwreck, and then it's reported that a very heavy storm hit the lighthouse later in the year, during which a fireball struck the tower. The force of the explosion shattered windows, ripped up pathways, destroyed furniture, and knocked Mr Baird unconscious.

So the lighthouse keepers didn't just turn the light on at night, they were regularly involved in some of the most fascinating historical events in our region. But as technology advanced, the need for lighthouse keepers diminished, until in 1996 the lighthouse was totally automated and keepers were no longer needed. Cape Naturaliste Lighthouse was the last lighthouse in Western Australia to lose it's keeper.

The lighthouse today also incorporates a maritime museum, and is well worth a look as it contains a lot of information about this important part of our heritage. You can find out more at the Down South Western Australia web site at www.downsouth.com.au.