The Macquarie Lighthouse description and photos - Australia: Sydney (Topic)

The Macquarie Lighthouse description and photos - Australia: Sydney. Detailed information about the attraction. Description, photographs and a map showing the nearest significant objects. The title in English is The Macquarie Lighthouse.

Photo & Description

McWire Lighthouse was Australia's first and longest-running lighthouse. It is located at Cape Dunbar, 2 km south of South Cape, near the entrance to Sydney Harbor. It was there that since 1791 the navigation equipment was located, and since 1818 the lighthouse worked. The current lighthouse was built in 1883 - it is still in operation and is under the jurisdiction of the Australian Maritime Safety Administration. Until 2008, the image of the lighthouse could be seen on the coat of arms of McWire University.

In July 1816, the then governor of the New South Wales colony, Lachlan Macwire, laid the foundation stone for the lighthouse, which he called Macwire's Tower. It was designed by Francis Greenaway, the famous exiled architect, and was built from loose sandstone. The first light came on at the lighthouse on November 30, 1818.

The loose sandstone turned out to be short-lived, and already in 1823 the building began to crumble. To prevent the destruction of the lighthouse, it was held together with huge steel hoops. In 1881, 4 meters from the old lighthouse, construction began on a new one, which began to work two years later. The new structure, designed by James Barnett, completely repeated the appearance of its predecessor, but was built from a stronger material. The lighthouse's light chamber has become larger, allowing for the use of larger and more modern equipment. Every minute a white light flashed on the lighthouse for eight seconds, which was visible at a distance of 46 km. In good weather, the lighthouse was powered by a gas burner, in bad weather electricity was used. One of those generators the switchboard and one arc light are still in the lighthouse building.

It wasn't until 1976 that the McVire lighthouse was fully automated, and the last staff left it in 1989. There are two buildings next to the lighthouse - the house of the head of the lighthouse, built in the 1840s, and the house of his assistant, built in 1881. Interestingly, in 2004, the lighthouse keeper's house was put up for sale for A $ 1.95 million.

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Topic: The Macquarie Lighthouse description and photos - Australia: Sydney.