THE KEEPERS OF CAPE NATURALISTE
LIGHTHOUSE
by Graeme Olsen
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.
December 2001
