Dent Island Lightstation Heritage Management Plan (Cth)
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The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, acting pursuant to section 341S of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999, makes this heritage management plan in relation to parts of the Dent Island Lightstation within its ownership or control.
Given under the Common Seal of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority
this 21st day of October 2013
which seal is duly affixed in the presence of:
Chairperson Witness
(Bruce Elliot, A/Chairperson) (Kristie Craig, Executive Assistant)
The Australian Maritime Safety Authority, acting pursuant to section 341S of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999, makes this heritage management plan in relation to parts of the Dent Island Lightstation within its ownership or control.
this 9th day of December 2013
Chief Executive Officer
(Michael Kinley, A/Chief Executive Officer)
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© Commonwealth of Australia 2013
Published by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority and the Australian Maritime Safety Authority
ISBN 978 1 921682 99 5 (eBook)
This work is copyright. Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968,
no part may be reproduced by any process without the prior written permission of the
Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority or the Australian Maritime Safety Authority.
The National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry :
Dent Island Lightstation heritage management plan [electronic resource] / Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority.
ISBN 978 1 921682 99 5 (eBook)
Dent Island Lightstation (Qld.)
Lighthouses--Queensland--Dent Island.
Historic buildings--Conservation and restoration--Queensland--Dent Island.
Great Barrier Reef Marine Park (Qld.)--Management.
Other Authors/Contributors:
Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority and the Australian Maritime Safety Authority.
387.15509943
This publication should be cited as:
Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority and the Australian Maritime Safety Authority 2013,
Dent Island Lightstation heritage management plan, GBRMPA, Townsville and AMSA, Canberra.
Cover picture:
Dent Island Lighthouse, overlooking the Whitsunday Passage, 2012 (Image: Peter Marquis-Kyle)
Requests and inquiries concerning reproduction and rights should be addressed to:
Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority Australian Maritime Safety Authority
Director, Communications and Parliamentary Business Media Officer
2-68 Flinders Street GPO Box 2181
PO Box 1379 CANBERRA ACT 2601
TOWNSVILLE QLD 4810 Australia Australia
Phone: (07) 4750 0700` Phone: (02) 6279 5000
Fax: (07) 4772 6093 Fax: (02) 6279 5950
Comments and inquiries on this document are welcome and should be addressed to:
Project Manager Field Management, Manager, Aids to Navigation
Field Management Unit [email protected]
align="center">TABLE OF CONTENTS
Foreword
Executive summary
1. Introduction
1.1. Overview of the cultural significance of Dent Island Lightstation
1.2. Conserving cultural significance
1.3. Preparation of this heritage management plan
2. Heritage management plan objectives
3. A brief history of Dent Island Lightstation
3.1 Australia’s lighthouses
3.2 Lighting the Queensland coast
3.3. Establishment of the Dent Island Lightstation
3.4. A manned lightstation
3.5. An automatic lighthouse
3.6. The golf course
4. Dent Island
4.1. Location
4.2. Geology
4.3. The occupation and use of Dent Island
4.4. Current owners and leases
4.5. The heritage management plan area
4.6. The lightstation setting
5. Cultural significance
5.1. Previous listings
5.2. Summary statement of significance
5.3. Cultural values
6. The fabric of the lightstation
6.1. Introduction
6.2. List of the elements of the lightstation
6.3. The lighthouse (AMSA property)
6.4. The rest of the lightstation (GBRMPA property)
7. Operational requirements
7.1. Requirements for aids to navigation
7.2. AMSA Heritage Strategy
7.3. Great Barrier Reef Heritage Strategy
7.4. Other plans and management considerations
7.5. Statutory requirements
7.6. Dent Island lease arrangements
8. Heritage management policies
8.1. Principles
8.2. Processes
8.3. Skills
8.4. Use of the lighthouse
8.5. Use of the rest of the lightstation
8.6. Conserving the lighthouse
8.7. Conserving the other lightstation elements
8.8. Interpretation
9. Implementation plan
10. Appendices
10.1. Bibliography
10.2. Definitions of terms from the Burra Charter
10.3. Entry in the Commonwealth Heritage List, with recommended corrections
10.4. Table demonstrating compliance with the EPBC Act 1999
10.5. Map of Dent Island tenure
10.6. Plan of the elements of Dent Island Lightstation
10.7. Lease plans of the Commonwealth part of Dent Island
10.8. Dent Island boulders geotechnical inspection March 2010
10.9. List of introduced plants
Table of figures
Figure 1 — Dent Island Lightstation
Figure 2 — Aerial view of Dent Island Lightstation, April 2008
Figure 3 — Major pre-1900 lightstations in the Great Barrier Reef region
Figure 4 — Contract drawing for the lighthouse, 1878
Figure 5 — Keepers' cottages at Cape Cleveland
Figure 6 — Dent Island Lighthouse, 1917
Figure 7 — Dent Island Lightstation, c. 1915
Figure 8 — The lightstation, c. 1950
Figure 9 — The lightstation site in 1954
Figure 10 — The lightstation in 2002
Figure 11 — The areas leased by AMSA
Figure 12 — The lighthouse in 2012
Figure 13 — Map of Dent Island land tenure
Figure 14 — Plan of the elements of Dent Island Lightstation
Figure 15 — Lease plans of the Commonwealth part of Dent Island
Figure 16 — Plan showing the location of boulders
Foreword
The Dent Island Lightstation was placed on the Commonwealth Heritage List in 2004. It is important for the evidence it shows of the historical development of maritime aids to navigation in Australia. The lighthouse, first lit in 1879, demonstrates a rare construction method used only in Queensland colonial lighthouses.
The lightstation is jointly managed by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA), the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service (QPWS) through the joint Field Management Program, and the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA), and is included on the Commonwealth Heritage List.
The EnvironmentProtection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 requires that each Commonwealth agency that owns or controls a Commonwealth Heritage listed place must make a written management plan to protect and manage the Commonwealth Heritage values of the place.
This Dent Island Lightstation Heritage Management Plan describes the heritage values of this Commonwealth Heritage place, sets out the obligations that arise from those values, and proposes measures to ensure that those values are managed and protected.
This heritage management plan was written and adopted by the GBRMPA and AMSA, the two Commonwealth agencies responsible for the lightstation.
Figure 1 — Dent Island Lightstation, March 2013 (Image: Hamilton Island Enterprises)
Executive summary
Dent Island Lightstation was included in the Commonwealth Heritage List in 2004 because it demonstrates the historical pattern of development of coastal aids to navigation in colonial Queensland, and because it is a characteristic example of its type.
The lighthouse, erected on the island in 1879, was one of a series of 12 lighthouse towers of a distinctive type, built between 1873 and 1890. These timber-framed towers clad with riveted iron were designed by officers of the Queensland colonial government, to meet the particular needs of the colony, in a form that was not used anywhere else in the world. Near the lighthouse tower are two houses, a workshop, a derrick crane, a winch house, a trolley way, fowl house, and the grounds in which they sit together; these elements make up the Dent Island Lightstation.
The lightstation is about 18 km from Shute Harbour, on the south-western side of Dent Island, in the Whitsunday Region of the Great Barrier Reef. Dent Island is within the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park and World Heritage Area. The southern part of the island is held on behalf of the Commonwealth of Australia by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA). The lighthouse is a working aid to navigation that remains the property of the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA).
This heritage management plan is concerned mainly with the lightstation, but also addresses the management of the surrounding land which forms the visual setting of the lightstation. The plan is intended to guide the decisions and actions of the GBRMPA and its two lessees at Dent Island — AMSA which continues to own and operate the lighthouse, and a private lessee who occupies the rest of the lightstation site. The GBRMPA and AMSA have prepared this plan jointly, to integrate the management of the heritage values of the lightstation in accordance with the EnvironmentProtection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (the EPBC Act).
The 1879 lighthouse has been fitted with modern solar-powered lighting equipment, and operates automatically as a part of the AMSA network of aids to navigation. The equipment is serviced by AMSA’s maintenance contractor who visits at least once per year. AMSA officers visit on an ad hoc basis for auditing, project and community liaison purposes.
The larger part of the lightstation outside the AMSA lease, containing two lightkeepers’ houses and other ancillary structures, is leased to a private lessee who operates a golf course on Dent Island. The private lessee has carried out repairs to the buildings, grounds and services, and uses the houses to accommodate members of staff. The lightstation area is not open to visitors except by special arrangement.
The use of the lightstation and its setting is constrained by several management controls, including Commonwealth Islands zoning, permits and leases. Under the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Zoning Plan 2003, this part of Dent Island is designated a Commonwealth Islands Zone and may be used or entered without permission only for low impact (non-extractive) activities such as photography, filming, marine resources and limited educational programs. This heritage management plan is consistent with meeting the ‘objectives of the zone’ by ensuring minimal environmental impact.
Being well built and generally well maintained over the years, the buildings and other structures of the lightstation mostly remain in a good, stable condition. The policies and management regimes set out in this heritage management plan will ensure the Dent Island Lightstation’s Commonwealth heritage values are recognised and maintained into the future.
Introduction
1.1. Overview of the cultural significance of Dent Island Lightstation
Dent Island is in the Whitsunday Island Group of the Great Barrier Reef approximately 18 kilometres south-east of Shute Harbour (20º 20' 21” S and 148º 55' 48” E). A lighthouse has operated on the island continuously since 1879. The historic lightstation — comprised of the lighthouse and its ancillary structures and grounds — embodies important and evocative evidence of the historical development of aids to navigation along the Queensland coast and the history of lighthouse technology, accommodation and associated services. It is a place of cultural significance.
‘Places of cultural significance enrich people’s lives, often providing a deep and inspirational sense of connection to community and landscape, to the past and to lived experiences. They are historical records that are important as tangible expressions of Australian identity and experience. Places of cultural significance reflect the diversity of our communities, telling us about who we are and the past that has formed us and the Australian landscape…These places of cultural significance must be conserved for present and future generations.’
(from the preamble to the Australia ICOMOS Burra Charter, 1999)
These words reveal the importance of places which demonstrate the pattern of Australia’s history. The Dent Island Lightstation is one such place of historical and cultural significance to Australians, particularly to the coastal communities of Queensland, reflecting the colony’s and state’s development after separation from New South Wales. A navigational light has shone on Dent Island since 1879, marking an area of danger and facilitating the safe passage of goods and people through the Great Barrier Reef.
In recognition of its significance, the lightstation is included in the Commonwealth Heritage List.
1.2. Conserving cultural significance
The southern part of Dent Island, including the lightstation site, is held on behalf of the Commonwealth by the GBRMPA, which has a responsibility to protect, preserve and transmit the heritage values of the lightstation to all generations of Australians.
The small area of land on which the lighthouse stands is leased by the GBRMPA to AMSA, another Commonwealth agency. AMSA operates the lighthouse as one of its system of aids to navigation.
The land around the lighthouse, together with the former lightkeepers’ cottages and other ancillary structures, is leased by the GBRMPA to a private lessee. The lease requires the lessee to conserve the heritage values of the part of the lightstation not leased to AMSA. The private lessee has been extensively involved in the preparation of this heritage management plan.
This heritage management plan sets out the framework and mechanisms the GBRMPA and AMSA will use to monitor, protect, conserve and manage the heritage values at Dent Island Lightstation.
1.3. Preparation of this heritage management plan
Preparation of the heritage management plan has followed good professional practice in the field. The methods used are consistent with the recommendations of The Burra Charter (Australia ICOMOS 1999) and The Conservation Plan (Kerr 2004). The plan includes a short account of the history of the place drawn from expert knowledge and documentary sources acknowledged in the text. The descriptions of the place and its current condition are based on site inspections, and the analysis of the statement of significance uses the Commonwealth Heritage criteria drawn from the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Regulations 2000 (the EPBC Regulations).
This plan was initially drafted by the private lessee then augmented and edited by Peter Marquis-Kyle (consultant conservation architect) and reviewed by the GBRMPA and AMSA.
The draft management plan was advertised in accordance with the EPBC Regulations jointly by GBRMPA and AMSA and the comments received were incorporated into the document. A developed draft was submitted to the Minister through the Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities and in that process the Minister’s delegate sought advice from the Australian Heritage Council.
Figure 2 — Aerial view of Dent Island Lightstation, March 2013 (Image: Hamilton Island Enterprises)
2. Heritage management plan objectives
The objectives of this heritage management plan are to:
Protect, conserve and manage the Commonwealth heritage values of the Dent Island Lightstation;
Interpret and promote the Commonwealth heritage values of the Dent Island Lightstation;
Manage use and where there is no adverse impact on the Commonwealth heritage values of the place, manage adaptive re-use of the lightstation consistent with the heritage values; and
Use best practice standards, including ongoing technical and community input, and apply best available knowledge and expertise when considering actions likely to have a substantial impact on Commonwealth heritage values.
In undertaking these objectives the heritage management plan also aims to:
Provide for the protection and conservation of the Commonwealth heritage values of the place while minimising any impacts on the natural environment by applying the relevant environmental management requirements in a manner consistent with all heritage conservation activities;
Take into account the significance of the island as a cultural landscape occupied by Aboriginal people over many thousands of years;
Recognise that the site has been occupied by lease holders since the early 20th century;
Encourage site uses that are compatible with the historical fabric, infrastructure and general environment; and
Record and document maintenance works, and changes to the fabric, in the GBRMPA and AMSA heritage registers.
The key performance indicators for the heritage management plan are:
The preservation of the Commonwealth heritage values of the lightstation for current and future generations;
Meeting the Implementation Plan (page 61) and maintenance requirements relevant to the lightstation and AMSA’s operational requirements for the lighthouse, consistent with lease requirements;
Ensuring that any interpretation materials used for staff instruction, or for special interest visits if they occur, accurately represent the history and Commonwealth heritage values of the place; and
The publication of this heritage management plan on the GBRMPA and AMSA websites and, as a registered legislative instrument, on the Federal Register of Legislative Instruments.
3. A brief history of Dent Island Lightstation
3.1 Australia’s lighthouses
Since Governor Lachlan Macquarie ordered the building of a lighthouse at South Head near the entrance to Port Jackson in 1816 (and was criticised by his superiors in London for the cost), providing aids to navigation has been the business of Australian government agencies. It was a costly undertaking to build and operate lighthouses, but lighthouses reduced the risk of shipwreck and the cost was worthwhile. Up to the present time the cost has largely been paid by the operators of ships, through various schemes of dues, levies and charges.
Each of the colonies developed its own particular types and systems of lighthouse operation, reflecting the volume of shipping, the value of trade, the local building materials and the local navigation hazards. The earliest lighthouses were built in New South Wales — others in Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania), Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia came later.
When the colony of Queensland separated from New South Wales in 1859 there was only one lighthouse in the new territory: Cape Moreton Lighthouse, a stone tower completed in 1857. The new colony, with no railways and only a few rough roads, depended on coastal shipping, despite the difficulties of navigating a coast set behind the Great Barrier Reef. From separation in 1859 until federation in 1901 the Queensland marine authorities built an impressive set of lighthouses, which demonstrate remarkable frugality and technical innovation. The type of timber-framed, iron-sheeted lighthouse tower (of which the 1879 Dent Island Lighthouse is a typical example) is a local Queensland invention.When the Australian colonies federated in 1901, it was decided that the new Commonwealth government would be responsible for coastal lighthouses. This arrangement came into effect after the necessary legislation was passed in 1912, a survey of existing lighthouses was conducted by Commander C R W Brewis RN, and a bureaucracy was established. The transfer of Queensland lighthouses to the new Commonwealth Lighthouse Service began in 1915. The Commonwealth Lighthouse Service headquarters was in Melbourne, and the design of new lighthouses became more standardised around the country, though regional depots (including one in Brisbane which was responsible for the coast between Torres Strait and Cape Moreton) still maintained some local character.
Since 1915 various Commonwealth departments have carried the responsibility for lighthouses. The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA), established under the Australian Maritime Safety Authority Act 1990, is now responsible for operating lighthouses and other Commonwealth aids to navigation, along with its other functions.
3.2 Lighting the Queensland coast
One of the first appointments made by the Queensland colonial government after separation from New South Wales was a marine surveyor, Captain George Poynter Heath. Between his appointment in 1859 and his retirement in 1887, Heath was responsible for supervising the opening of 13 new ports, establishing 33 lighthouses, 6 lightships and 150 small lights and marking 450 miles (724 km) of the inner route through the Barrier Reef (Gibbney 1972). Captain Heath advised a parliamentary select committee that set out the beginnings of the policy for developing lighthouses along the Queensland coast.
In 1864 the select committee recommended erecting lighthouses at Sandy Cape and Bustard Head. Selection of these two sites reflects the importance at that time of the ports of Maryborough and Rockhampton. The government acted on this recommendation, and its agents in England procured two complete lighthouses in ‘kit’ form, with towers of cast iron segments which were bolted together on their sites. The two towers were manufactured by different foundries in England, though their designs were similar. Both were equipped with lantern houses and optical apparatus manufactured by Chance Brothers & Company, the major English lighthouse equipment maker. The Bustard Head lighthouse was first lit in 1868, and Sandy Cape in 1870. These fully imported cast iron lighthouses were effective, though costly.
Figure 3 — Major pre-1900 lightstations in the Great Barrier Reef region (Source: GBRMPA)
Having pressed for the Sandy Cape and Bustard Head lights, the select committee members added that they did not ignore the fact which this enquiry has impressed upon them, that there is before the Government of Queensland the much larger and more serious task of so lighting what is called the Inner Passage within the Barrier Reef, that not only the trade to our own rapidly increasing ports may be protected, but that much of the trade with India, China, and other countries to the North of this Continent may be diverted from the Western to the Eastern line of Passage (Select Committee 1864). With the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 the shipping route along the Queensland coast became even more important.
The Queensland government, though its funds were very limited, pressed ahead with the development of a system of lighthouses and other navigation and port facilities. Successive governments used this infrastructure to encourage expansion of trade, at the same time as they responded to requests by ship operators. The development of the shipping route through the Torres Strait, and on to the Suez Canal, put Queensland ports closer to European markets than the old route that added Queensland onto the end of a long journey around Australia’s southern ports.
Architects in the Queensland Colonial Architect’s office, in particular the skilled, innovative and practical Robert Ferguson (1840–1906), developed an innovative design for lighthouse towers. The first of these new timber and iron composite lighthouses was built on Lady Elliott Island and lit in 1873. Following the success of the Lady Elliot Island lighthouse, others were built at Cape Bowling Green (first lit 1874), Cape Capricorn (1875), Low Isles (1878), and North Reef (1878).
The government kept up this rapid progress of lighthouse building by letting a contract for the construction of a pair of identical lighthouses — one at Cape Cleveland to mark the entrance to Cleveland Bay and the port of Townsville, and the other at Dent Island, the subject of this heritage management plan. Both of these lightstations were finished and operating in 1879.
Development of the system of navigation lights continued. Similar iron-plated, timber-framed lighthouses were built at Flat Top Island (1879), Archer Point (1883), Double Island Point (1884), Pine Islet (1885), and Booby Island (1890).
Following the success of the composite lighthouses, the government architects developed an even more economical type of construction, using light gauge corrugated galvanised iron sheeting rather than riveted iron plating, and built a series of smaller lighthouses. Towers of this second type were built at Goods Island (1886), Grassy Hill (1886), Bay Rock (1886), Sea Hill (1895), Caloundra (1896), Gatcombe Head (1900), and Bulwer Island (1912).
3.3. Establishment of the Dent Island Lightstation
Commander Heath, the Portmaster, wrote to the Colonial Treasurer in February 1878 to request that … the Colonial Architect may be instructed to prepare plans & specifications and call for tenders for a Lighthouse at Cape Cleveland & on Dent Island Whitsunday Passage. The towers to be the same size as that at Flat Top Island but with a trunkway in the centre for the clockwork weights to travel up & down as at Lady Elliots’ Island. With each of the Light houses two cottages will be required for the keepers. (WOR/A268 In-letter 4484 of 1890, quoted in Thorburn 1967).
The Treasurer passed the request on to F D G Stanley, the Colonial Architect. Stanley reported in April that the documents were almost ready, and in May called for tenders for the erection of both lighthouses. Three tenders were received for each lighthouse. William Peter Clark submitted the lowest tenders — £1820 for Dent Island and £1670 for Cape Cleveland — and his tenders were accepted.
In December 1878 Stanley reported on a visit to Dent Island: Having arranged for detention of the “Victoria” S.S. [steam ship] for two hours in passing through Whitsunday Passage — I landed with the Contractor and with considerable difficulty reached the top of this island and found a suitable spot for the Lighthouse, commanding the Channel both to North and South, also a level site for Cottages. The work is now in progress, the buildings being framed up in Brisbane (QSA WOR/A158 In-letter 6178 of 1878, quoted in Thorburn 1967).
Figure 4 — Contract drawing for the lighthouse, 1878
Light houses: Dent Island & Cape Cleveland, a contract drawing prepared in the office of the Colonial Architect. The contractor William Clark signed the drawing in the bottom right corner, but part of his signature has been lost. (Source: National Archives of Australia, series J2775, item 1717459).
It appears that William Clark got into financial difficulties around this time. He transferred his contracts to others to complete (to John Clark for the Dent Island project and to James Wiseman for Cape Cleveland); James Campbell, supplier of building materials in Brisbane, sued William Clark for payment of debts; the Crown Solicitor and various other lawyers got involved; William Clark was insolvent for a time.
Despite these distractions the building work was finished, and the lighting equipment installed and commissioned. The lighthouse was first lit at the end of October 1879 (Heath 1879). A contemporary newspaper article describing a journey through the Whitsunday Passage mentioned that …a young woman and her baby had to be landed at Dent Island, where a new lighthouse has lately been built, of which her husband is the keeper (Anonymous 1879).
There were two separate cottages at the lightstation; one was for the principal lightkeeper with his family; and the other for the assistant lightkeeper and his family. No drawings of these cottages are known to survive, but they were probably similar to those for Cape Cleveland shown in Figure 5. A photograph published in 1915 shows that they were similar to those built at some other Queensland lightstations (Figure 7).[1]
[1]The only keepers’ houses of this particular type still surviving are at Booby Island Lightstation, built in 1890.
The keepers took turns keeping watch through the night in the tower, where their principal duty was to tend the kerosene wick burner and to wind up the weight that drove a clockwork to rotate the lenses. Dent Island Lighthouse was originally fitted with a fourth order revolving dioptric light. This is an assembly of Fresnel lenses and refracting prisms with a focal radius of 250 mm that rotated on a vertical axis around the kerosene lamp, projecting several narrow beams of light out towards the horizon. Because of the regular rotation of the lenses, ships’ officers saw distinct flashes of light as each beam passed over their ship. Each lighthouse had its own character or pattern of flashes which was shown on navigation charts, and which allowed the ships’ crew to recognise which lighthouse it was.
The keepers’ daytime duties included maintaining all the equipment and facilities of the station, monitoring vessels traversing the passage, signalling to and from the vessels, and dealing with quantities of kerosene (brought by the government steamer) and household supplies (brought by contractors). To support these functions, the station was equipped with a workshop, a flagpole, and a boat shed.
Figure 5 — Keepers' cottages at Cape Cleveland
Lightkeepers Cottage and Assistant Lightkeepers Cottage for Cape Cleveland, a contract drawing prepared in the office of the Colonial Architect, and signed by the contractor William Clark. No corresponding drawing of the original Dent Island cottages is known to survive, but it is likely that they were similar to these. (Source: National Archives of Australia, series J2775, item 1717460).
3.3.1 The lighthouse
As was typical for this series of lighthouses, the Dent Island tower was round in plan and tapered in profile, forming a truncated cone. The outer walls were framed with sawn hardwood posts and rails, bolted together with joints reinforced with wrought iron straps and brackets. The walls were lightly braced by timber braces, which would have served to stabilise the timber structure before the iron shell was fitted. At Dent Island there was just one intermediate floor with hardwood joists and pine floorboards. In the centre of the tower was a vertical timber weight tube, which formed a central support for a winding timber stair that ran part of the way up the tower. On the upper level, where the conical tower was too small to fit a stair, there was a fixed ladder up to the level of the light room and balcony.
The tower frame was supported at the bottom by a segmented cast iron ring that formed a base, bolted to a massive concrete footing and floor cast within a low stone wall. The timber posts were bolted to lugs made as part of the iron base ring. At Dent Island, because the tower was quite short, a pit was formed in the middle of the floor to provide a longer drop for the weights that powered the clockwork that rotated the lens.
The tower was clad with a covering of wrought iron plates, about 3 mm thick, which were rolled to conform to the conical shape. The plates were lapped and riveted, and screwed to the timber framework and to the iron ring at the base. A timber door was fitted at the bottom of the tower, and glazed windows at each floor level.
At the top of the tower was a timber-framed structure, which formed the floor of the lantern room, and the projecting balcony that surrounded the lantern room. This balcony had a flooring of timber boards with a waterproof covering of lead sheet.
The lantern (the structure which enclosed the lantern room, and which protected the optical apparatus) had three main parts — the base, the glazed section and the roof. The base (sometimes called the murette) was round in plan, framed in timber, clad with iron on the outside and with timber boarding inside, and capped with an iron sill. There was a low door in the base through which the keeper could crawl out onto the balcony. Above the base was the glazed section, with flat trapezoidal glass panes in a slender framework of iron. On top was the lantern roof (sometimes called a dome or cupola) of galvanised iron sheeting on an iron frame, curved to form a hemispherical dome. At the peak of the roof was a weatherproof vent for the lamp smoke to escape. All of these parts were locally designed and made in Queensland.
The optical apparatus was mounted inside the lantern room, and was manufactured by Chance Brothers & Company, lighthouse engineers, in their factory at Smethwick near Birmingham, United Kingdom. The apparatus consisted of the rotating assembly of lenses and prisms, the kerosene lamp at its centre with a number of circular concentric wicks, and the clockwork to rotate the lens assembly.
3.4. A manned lightstation
Dent Island was occupied and used by Aboriginal people over many thousands of years and was also occupied and used by the holders of various licences and leases, as is outlined in Section 4.3, but for long periods the lightkeepers and their families were the only people on the island. The lighstation was manned between 1879–1987.
Lightstations were staffed by men who were selected for their competence and reliability. It was expected that they would be married, and houses were provided so that their wives (and children, if they had any, as many did) would have appropriate accommodation. Larger lighthouses, like Sandy Cape on Fraser Island, had three keepers and a sufficient number of children to justify the appointment of a school teacher. At Dent Island the task of teaching children probably fell to their parents. The isolation of life at the station is poignantly illustrated by the presence of children’s graves at the station. One of these is marked with a plaque recording the death of Carrie Biss on 3 April 1885 at the age of 3½ years. Caroline’s death certificate records the cause of death as convulsions, and she was buried by her father, Head Lightkeeper Edwin Biss, and Assistant Lightkeeper G R Bellairs (Blackwood 1997).
Figure 6 — Dent Island Lighthouse, 1917
Photograph of the tower, looking southward. Note the managed landscape, with the ground cleared around the tower and the native hoop pines kept clear so that the light remains clearly visible from the passage. As was normal during daylight hours, canvas curtains have been hung in the lantern house, so that the lens cannot concentrate the light from the sun and damage the lamp. (Source: AMSA).
3.4.1 Upgrading the lighthouse
When the Australian colonies federated in 1901 it was agreed that coastal lighthouses should become a Commonwealth responsibility, with states continuing to provide harbour lights. The Commonwealth engaged Commander C R W Brewis, a retired British naval surveyor, to report on the condition of existing lights and to recommend improvements. His reports set a course for the newly established Commonwealth Lighthouse Service that took over existing lighthouses in 1915. Dent Island Lightstation, along with the other coastal lights between Cape Moreton and the Torres Strait, was managed from a Commonwealth Lighthouse Service depot in Brisbane. (The establishment of the Commonwealth Lighthouse Service is outlined in Reid 1988).
The lighthouse service followed Brewis’s recommendations and upgraded the light source at Dent Island in 1920 by replacing the wick burner with a much brighter pressurised burner with an incandescent mantle (Blackwood 1997). Around 1925 a Chance Brothers mercury float pedestal was installed. This improved the efficiency of the apparatus, but required an adjustment to the lantern base to accommodate the increased height of the focal plane of the lens above the floor (Commonwealth Lighthouse Service 1925).
Figure 7 — Dent Island Lightstation, c. 1915
Dent Island Lighthouse overlooking the Whitsunday Islands off the coast of Queensland, photograph commissioned by the Queensland Government Intelligence and Tourist Bureau and published in the book Views seen from Queensland Railways distributed at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition, San Francisco, 1915. (Source: State Library of Queensland < Improving the facilities
A cyclone hit the Whitsunday region in early 1917. A Brisbane newspaper reported that …no damage had been done to the lighthouse. The dwelling houses, however, required attention, and the outhouses had been flattened by a very severe hurricane. … Trees were uprooted, and the islands in the vicinity looked as desolate as if they had been swept by fire (Anonymous 1917). The damaged buildings were repaired and, at various times, the facilities on the station were adapted and improved.
In 1922 lighthouse service engineers surveyed the site and prepared a sketch of a derrick crane on the rocky cliff near the water’s edge, and a tramway leading up the hill to a spot near the keepers’ houses (Commonwealth Lighthouse Service 1922). Without such a facility it must have been a laborious business to manhandle supplies up the track from the little cove where small boats could land. Tins of kerosene, boxes of groceries, and household effects would all have had to be carried up a hill too steep for a horse and cart. It appears that the project did not proceed.
Electric lighting was introduced for the houses and to power radio equipment, with batteries charged by a diesel generator set in a small engine room building next to the lighthouse. Exactly when these changes were made has not been established, but it probably happened in the 1930s or 1940s, and the station certainly had the generator set and radio-telephone by 1951 (Commonwealth Lighthouse Service 1951). Meanwhile the lighthouse remained lit by kerosene and driven by clockwork.
The keepers had to wait until after the Second World War for any substantial improvements. In March 1952 a visiting engineer recorded that the station was well kept, but noted that the eight horsepower diesel generator engine had undue vibration. The author noted: Houses in bad condition, particularly floors, plates + verandahs and recorded a shortage of water in the second half of the preceding December (Commonwealth Lighthouse Service 1951).
The engineer also wrote: New house, store shed, crane winch and tramway to be erected here. These improvements were made, but not immediately. In December 1953 the houses were deteriorating rapidly, and the same observation was noted again in September 1957. In May 1958 the contractor for new houses … expects to have first house up by end July (Commonwealth Lighthouse Service 1951).
The two new houses, the derrick crane, the winch house and the workshop were probably completed by around 1960, although the available documents do not provide precise dates.
Figure 8 — The lightstation, c. 1950
Undated photograph showing the original keepers’ houses, with the engine room in place. Note the absence of any crane or trolley way. There is a rudimentary roof across the chasm in the cliff, presumably for protecting stores and a small boat. (Source: AMSA).
3.5. An automatic lighthouse
Developments in lighthouse technology through the 20th century made the equipment much more reliable. By the time the Commonwealth Lighthouse Service was set up in 1913 it was possible for navigation lights to operate for long periods without attention. That is, they operated automatically, fuelled with cylinders of acetylene gas and using the highly reliable equipment made by the Swedish AGA company. In 1915–1918 the Commonwealth Lighthouse Service constructed a series of seven new automatic acetylene lights to mark the shipping route between Cooktown and the Torres Strait (Ramsbotham 1919). Some manned lightstations were converted to the automatic system and de-manned — examples include the light on Pipon Reef which was converted in 1915 (Ramsbotham 1919) and the Cape Bowling Green light, which was converted and de-manned in 1920 (Australian National Maritime Museum undated).
Figure 9 — The lightstation site in 1954
Dent Island Lightstation, survey plan for proposed new quarters and tramway, 10 May 1954. This plan shows the two original keepers’ houses still in place, and a proposed new tramway terminating between them. To the north of the lighthouse tower is the engine room (containing the diesel generator set), and to the south of the tower is a fuel store. (Source: AMSA, drawing QS630).
Through the 1970s and 1980s, with further developments in the efficiency of solar-electric lighting systems, with the increasing importance of other aids to navigation such as radar, radio, depth sounders, and satellite global positioning systems (GPS), and with the drive for lower operating costs, the Commonwealth government proposed to automate most or all of its lighthouses. This was contentious (House of Representatives 1984). Among the vocal opponents were small boat operators who did not have radar or GPS and relied on the lighthouses and their keepers. (Buchanan 1994 gives a personal account of this period, from a Queensland lighthouse keeper’s point of view).
Ultimately, the scheme to automate and de-man the Commonwealth lights went ahead. In 1983 the light was automated. The land on which the lightstations stood was handed over to other government agencies, such as the various state national parks services, and AMSA arranged to lease back the small part of each site that was needed for the un-manned lights.
Figure 10 — The lightstation (likely to date before 1995) Note the building on the far left which has since been removed. (Source: unknown photographer, photograph supplied by Hamilton Island Enterprises)
At Dent Island the light was converted to solar power in 1983 (AMSA 2004). The old Chance Brothers clockwork and kerosene optical apparatus was removed from the lantern room, and a Tideland ML-300 beacon installed on the 1925 mercury float pedestal from which the mercury had been removed. Power for the light came from batteries inside the tower charged by an array of solar panels. In 2010 a Sabik LED 350 beacon replaced the ML-300.
The lightkeepers remained at Dent Island, maintaining and monitoring the light, until the station was de-manned in 1987.
The responsibility for Lots 3 and 4 (on Crown Plan HR2019) passed to the GBRMPA in 1994. Lots 1 and 2 (on Crown Plan HR2019) passed to the GBRMPA in 2003. AMSA leased two small pieces of land — a 58 m2 area around the tower (Lot 1 on Crown Plan HR2019), and a separate 669 m2 area on the edge of the cliff, retained as a possible site for a new replacement lighthouse and a helicopter landing pad (Lease A on Lot 2 on Crown Plan HR2019) (Figure 13).
The lighthouse tower remains the property of AMSA, which is also responsible for maintaining the small areas of land it leases from the GBRMPA. Lighthouse maintenance work is carried out by the AMSA maintenance contractor.
Maintenance of the former keepers’ houses and other ancillary buildings is the responsibility of the private lessee.
After the keepers left in 1987, the site was unoccupied for a time. In 1994 the private lessee appointed Rob Nichols as caretaker. He and his family stayed there until 1998. John Weymouth was appointed as caretaker in 1999 and was involved in considerable restoration work on the houses and ancillary buildings, funded by the private lessee.
Figure 11 — The areas leased by AMSA
Image © 2013 Aerometrex
3.6. The golf course
In August 2009, after about three years of construction work, the Dent Island Golf Course Resort began operation. A section of the course occupies land leased by the private lessee from the Commonwealth (Lot 4, leased from the GBRMPA). Most of the golf course is on the state portion of the island (Lot 5, leased from the Queensland Department of Natural Resources and Mines). The resort includes an 18-hole golf course, a clubhouse, a maintenance compound, a marine landing facility, a heliport, services and a pump station. Future developments proposed include a 109-room five-star hotel and associated restaurant, lounge, bar, pool and tennis court, up to 38 villa sites and 172 two- and three-bedroom townhouses/apartments.
With the completion of construction and commencement of operations of the golf course, improved access to Dent Island Lightstation has been completed. Concrete roads for golf buggies and maintenance vehicles now service the developed state government owned part of the island. Access is available from the marine landing facility, the golf course helipad, around the 18 holes of the golf course and from the 12th fairway to the lightstation. The access distance of the concrete road from the 12th fairway to the lightstation is approximately 350 m, averaging 3 m in width. Access to the lightstation for works, maintenance and operations is now available in most weather conditions.
4. Dent Island
4.1. Location
Dent Island is in the Whitsunday Island Group of the Great Barrier Reef approximately 18 km south-east of Shute Harbour (20º20'21"s, 148º55'48"e) (
Figure 3).
Dent Island is in the Great Barrier Reef, between the Queensland coast and the outer Reef. It is approximately 1.5 km west of the largest inhabited island in the Whitsundays, Hamilton Island, positioned about midway along the coastline between Brisbane and Cairns. The island has a surveyed area of about 312 ha.
4.2. Geology
Dent Island is a steep island with an undulating coastline rising to rounded hills. The island is dissected by small gullies and has shallow embayments on all sides. In places the shore has been cut into rocky bluffs. The geology of Dent Island comprises Whitsunday Volcanics, waterlaid acid to intermediate air-fall pyroclastics, minor pyroclastic flows and lava.
4.3. The occupation and use of Dent Island
Government archives contain records of a succession of licences, leases and transfers of property on Dent Island; however, written records of Indigenous occupation are limited.
4.3.1. Indigenous occupation and use
Coppinger (1883) counted 40 or 50 Aboriginal people on Dent Island in 1882 and stated his surprise at the large number of children. During the early post-contact period Dent Island became a refuge for many Aboriginal people. Blackwood (1997) also reports that about 50 people were living around the Dent Island Lighthouse in the early 1880s. By the 1930s most of the offshore islands were almost completely depopulated of Aboriginal people, with the exception of those people who stayed on to work at islands occupied by European settlers (Farr 1965; Blackwood 1997).
Prior to European contact, the entire Whitsunday region including all the islands had been home to the Gnaro people of the Birri-Gubba nation, at least since the last major sea level rise in the late Pleistocene period (i.e. the end of the last ice age). As a result, Gnaro people have sites of significance to them that are below the current sea level.
Throughout the Whitsunday Islands there are sites of significance such as the petraglyphs of Nara Inlet which show tangible evidence of occupation and use. Unseen, and just as significant, are the intangible sites of significance to the Gnaro people which leave no physical evidence of occupation and use. It is known that the Gnaro people have visited and occupied all the islands in the region for reasons of subsistence, shelter, seasonal changes in natural resource availability, ceremonial and other reasons. It can be said that the entire Whitsunday region is culturally significant to the Gnaro people.
4.3.2. Lightkeepers, pastoralists and tourists
The lightstation occupies only a small portion of Dent Island and the Queensland government has granted a succession of licenses and leases for the remainder (Blackwood 1997).
From 1905 until 1912 Michael Ahern held an occupation licence over the whole of the island, but it is not known what use he made of it. William Galbraith took over the lease until it lapsed in 1913. Blackwood (1997) notes that this may have been in connection with the Commonwealth Government’s decision to create a lighthouse reserve and official correspondence in 1910 shows their claiming a strip of 200 acres (81 ha) running across the island 20 chains (396 m) north and south of the lighthouse, effectively isolating the southern end of the island. By 1919 or 1920s this reserve had been extended to cover the whole of the southern half of the island (about 400 acres (160 ha)) with some argument that the northern half should not be leased because of the danger that smoke from fires may obscure the light. In any event it seems that from about 1915 a reserve over the southern half was a ‘fait accompli’ as in that year all lighthouse reserves passed to the Commonwealth Government.
Between 1927 and 1933 Edward Stuart Abell held a lease over the whole island, including the southern lighthouse reserve, with a proviso that he was to fence the boundary to keep stock out of the lighthouse reserve. He built the fence, but did not run any stock or live on the island.
The lease was transferred to John James O’Hara in 1933. He ran cattle and sheep on the island and initially built a corrugated iron shack, and later a fibro house, for shelter during occasional visits. A more substantial fibro house came later, and was used by the workers who built the new lightkeepers’ cottages around 1958. From 1939 O’Hara and his wife lived full-time on the island, in a building relocated from the main street of Proserpine. The lease passed to other O’Hara family members, who retained the interest until it was sold in 1968.
In 1961, the Wallace’s leased 1.01 ha around the building that had been moved from Proserpine — this continues as the Coral Art lease (Lot 4 on CP855596) on the State part of the island.
The pastoral lease over the northern part of Dent Island passed in turn to Ronald Willam Vigar (1968), Sebastian Properties Pty Ltd / Normelda Developments Pty Ltd (1973), the Faust family (1974), and a private lessee (1989).
In 1989, following the de-manning of the lightstation, the Commonwealth leased the small area of land immediately around the lighthouse to AMSA, and put out to tender the lease of the remainder of the southern part of Dent Island. The lease was granted to a private lessee.
4.4. Current owners and leases
The northern part of Dent Island (about two-thirds of the island) is owned by the Queensland government and the southern part (the former lighthouse reserve) is held on behalf of the Commonwealth by the GBRMPA.
The private lessee has responsibility for the day-to-day maintenance of the land and facilities within the leased areas.
The southern Commonwealth part of Dent Island comprises five leased areas, as described below:
-Lot 1 HR2019 (58 m2): This small area contains the lighthouse tower and is leased from the GBRMPA by AMSA. AMSA owns the lighthouse and the associated equipment and is responsible for maintaining this structure. AMSA has rights of access to the site through the surrounding areas.
-Lot 2 HR2019 (2836 m2): This lease is divided into two areas:
oLease A contains no structures and is leased from the GBRMPA by AMSA as a potential helipad site.
oLease B contains the former lightkeepers’ houses and other ancillary structures of the lightstation and is leased from the GBRMPA by a private lessee. The private lessee is responsible for the day-to-day maintenance of this Lot.
-Lot 3 HR2019 (1.662 ha): This area is leased from the GBRMPA by Maritime Safety Queensland as a navigation beacon reserve.
-Lot 4 HR2019 (115 ha): This area, the major part of the Commonwealth area in the south of the island, is leased from the GBRMPA by a private lessee. This lease includes the golf course. The lessee is responsible for the day-to-day property management of this allotment.
4.5. The heritage management plan area
This heritage management plan deals directly with the area that was historically used by the lighthouse keepers who maintained the lighthouse between 1879 and 1987 — that is, Lots 1 and 2 on HR2019, plus about 14 600m2 of Lot 4 (Figure 13). It includes the lighthouse, the two keepers’ houses, the store, the winch house, the workshop/store/radio-room and the engine room. Also included are the tramway, the derrick crane, various concrete paths, two graves, septic tanks, the main concrete water tank, the water header tank on its steel lattice stand, the fowl house, and the spa bath and its roof (Figure 11).
4.6. The lightstation setting
The heritage value of the lightstation could be affected adversely by changes in its visual setting — this is the area seen around the lightstation from seaward, from the shore up to the line of the ridge behind the station to the east, and extending about 300 m to the north and south of the station.
Dent Island is an area of steep and moderate vegetated slopes rising from the rocky foreshore up to a ridge that runs roughly parallel with the shore line. It is covered with eucalypt forest and woodland (Corymbia tessellaris and Eucalyptus tereticornis) open forest and vine thicket understorey on hill slopes, also present are areas of variable eucalypt dominated associations (often with Eucalyptus drepanophylla, E. crebra, Acacia spirorbis subsp. solandri, Lophostemon confertus and E. exserta) and grassland on the southern portion (Xanthorrhoea latifolia subsp. latifolia shrubland and Imperata cylindrica grassland, including some areas recently colonised by Timonius timon shrubland), with a few clumps of hoop pine (Araucaria cunninghamii). It contrasts with the more open landscape of the lightstation where native trees have been cleared (except for the hoop pines), the grass has been kept mown, and garden plants have been introduced.
5. Cultural significance
The cultural significance of the Dent Island Lightstation is set out in the entry in the Commonwealth Heritage List to which the lightstation was added in 2004. The cultural significance as described is discrete from the overall Aboriginal cultural significance of the entire region as noted previously. The statements from the list are reproduced below, with some comments and suggestions made on the basis of recent investigations.
5.1. Previous listings
The cultural significance of the Dent Island Lightstation was already recognised when the EPBC Act came into effect. The following listings are noted here for the record, although they do not have any legislative effect on the management or operation of the lightstation.
- The National Trust of Queensland Register — the lightstation is currently not listed by the National Trust (pers. Comm 2012, National Trust of Queensland).
- The Queensland Heritage Register — Dent Island Lighthouse was entered in the state register at the commencement of the Queensland Heritage Act 1992 under the transitional arrangements from the Heritage Buildings Protection Act 1990, but was later removed after legal advice that listing in the State register was not valid for Commonwealth-owned places. As a result of receiving this advice about the Dent Island case, the Queensland Heritage Council removed from its register all other places owned by the Commonwealth (pers. comm. 2012, Queensland Department of Environment and Heritage Protection).
- The Register of the National Estate — Dent Island Lightstation was entered in this register in 1980. This listing no longer has any effect on the management of the place, since the EPBC Act has taken over the relevant functions of the Heritage Commission Act 1975.
5.2. Summary statement of significance
The current Commonwealth Heritage List summary is shown in italic type below, with comments interspersed in roman type:
Dent Lighthouse, constructed in 1879, is significant as a light tower built in response to the dramatic expansion of regular coastal shipping along the inner route of the Great Barrier Reef, following the economic development of Northern Queensland (Criterion A.4).
Concerning the name of the place, since 1879 it has been known officially as Dent Island Lighthouse or Dent Island Lightstation — that name should be used in the heritage list. While it is known that the Gnaro people may have had their own name for Dent Island, this has not been recorded on any known document.
As well as being a response to the expansion of shipping, the lighthouse is an important manifestation of the colonial government’s policy of investing in infrastructure, such as railways and lighthouses, to encourage the expansion of economic activity.
The Lighthouse is significant as an intact representative example of a timber-framed, iron clad tower (Type B), an adaptation by the Queensland Government of the imported prefabricated type using components from the United Kingdom (Criterion D.2).
The design was not an adaptation of the prefabricated cast iron form as used at Bustard Head (first lit 1868) and Sandy Cape (1870). Rather, it was derived from other sources including the timber lighthouses being built in Canada, with the local invention of using boiler plate sheeting. Type B is not part of a recognised typology, and has no meaning here.
Dent Lighthouse is important as one of a pair of identical lighthouse towers in the Whitsunday Passage, the other being situated at Cape Cleveland (Criterion D.2).
Cape Cleveland is not in the Whitsunday Passage, but about 200 km further north. The two are no longer identical — at Cape Cleveland the stair, weight tube, and timber lining have been removed, and at Dent Island the lantern base has been modified.
The Lightstation Complex of tower, houses, store shed, engine room and combined workshop/radio room, dating from 1879 to c. 1960, are significant as a complete intact example of a Lightstation Complex in Queensland. Later stages of development have integrated with the original fabric and detail of the Lightstation, contributing to the continuum of a complex dedicated to the single aim of maintaining the navigation aid (Criterion A.4).
5.3. Cultural values
Again, the text from the current Commonwealth Heritage List is shown in italic type below, with comments interspersed in roman type:
5.3.1. Processes (criterion a)
Dent Lighthouse, constructed in 1879, is significant as a light tower built in response to the dramatic expansion of regular coastal shipping along the inner route of the Great Barrier Reef, following the economic development of Northern Queensland.
The Lightstation Complex of tower, houses, store shed, engine room and combined workshop/radio room, dating from 1879 to c. 1960 is significant as a complete intact example of a Lightstation Complex in Queensland. Later stages of development have integrated with the original fabric and detail of the Lightstation, contributing to the continuum of a complex dedicated to the single aim of maintaining the navigation aids.
Attributes: The lighthouse and its relationship to the houses, storage shed, engine room and combined workshop/radio room, dating from 1879 to c.1960.
5.3.2. Rarity (criterion b)
(This criterion is not referred to in the Commonwealth Heritage List)
While the lightstation might not possess sufficient rarity to meet the threshold for Commonwealth listing, the 1879 lighthouse is one of only six of its type to survive in service. Such lighthouses were never common — a total of 12 of this type were built between 1873 and 1890.[2] Another related aspect is the use of a type of lantern house locally designed (in the Colonial Architect’s office) — ten lanterns of this design were built, of which five survive in service.[3]
[2]The following six iron-plated, timber-framed lighthouses are still in service in Queensland: Low Isles (first lit 1878), North Reef (1878), Cape Cleveland (1879), Dent Island (1879), Double Island Point (1884) and Booby Island (1890). These four survive unused: Lady Elliott Island (1873), Cape Bowling Green (1874) (moved), Flat Top Island (1879) and Pine Islet (1885) (moved). These two have been demolished: Cape Capricorn (1875) and Archer Point (1883).
[3]Lanterns of this type are still in service at five lighthouses: Cape Cleveland (first lit 1879), Dent Island (1879), Grassy Hill (1886), Goods Island (1886) and Sea Hill (1895). Two others survive unused: Caloundra (1896) and Flat Top Island (1879). Three have been demolished: Archer Point (1883), Cowan Cowan (date uncertain) and the Moreton Bay Pile Light (1882).
Official Values
Criterion A Processes
Dent Island Lighthouse, constructed in 1879, is significant as a light tower built in response to, and to further encourage, the dramatic expansion of regular coastal shipping along the inner route of the Great Barrier Reef, following the economic development of Northern Queensland.
The Lightstation Complex of tower, houses, store shed, engine room and combined workshop/radio room, dating from 1879 to c. 1960 is significant as a complete intact example of a Lightstation Complex in Queensland. Later stages of development have integrated with the original fabric and detail of the Lightstation, contributing to the continuum of a complex dedicated to the single aim of maintaining the aids to navigation aid to navigation.
Attributes
The lighthouse and its relationship to the houses, storage shed, engine room and combined workshop/radio room, dating from 1879 to c. 1960.
Criterion D Characteristic values
The Lighthouse is significant as an intact representative example of a timber- framed, iron clad tower (Type B), an adaptation by the Queensland Government of the imported prefabricated type using components from the United Kingdom an innovative structural system designed in the office of the Queensland Colonial Architect and typical of Queensland lighthouses of the time. Dent Island Lighthouse is important as one of a pair of identical lighthouse towers in the Whitsunday Passage built at the same time, the other being situated at Cape Cleveland.
Attributes
The structural system and all of the fabric including timber framing and iron cladding.
Description
Dent Island is one of the group of islands that form the eastern edge of the Whitsunday Passage. The light provides navigational guidance for ships passing through the narrow passage between Whitsunday Island and the islands adjacent to the mainland.
The construction of lighthouses along the Queensland coast in the second half of the nineteenth century was in response to the quite dramatic expansion of regular coastal shipping along the inner route of the Great Barrier Reef following 1870. Prior to this period the major users of the inner route had been international shipping. The first imported prefabricated cast iron lighthouse in Queensland was erected at Bustard Head in 1867, with Sandy Cape Lighthouse (also imported) being erected in 1870.
The next phase of construction of light towers took on a different method in that the tower was erected around with a timber frame of colonial hardwood covered with a. The conical boiler plate casing is non-structural. This new system (Type B), became the normal standard Queensland construction technique and was significantly cheaper than the Sandy Cape/Bustard Head technique. The frame could be prefabricated in Brisbane before being erected on site.
Many lighthouses were built in the Type B this style, including those at Dent Island, Cape Cleveland, Lady Elliot Island, Low Isles, Double Island Point and Booby Island.
Commander George Poynter Heath, the Chairman of the Queensland Marine Board, wrote to the Colonial Treasurer in February 1878 recommending the construction of lights on both Cape Cleveland and Dent Island. Formal approval was granted in April and tenders were subsequently called. William P Clark was awarded the contract to erect the tower on Dent Island and two ancillary cottages for 1820 pounds. Building was completed in September 1879.
The six seven buildings associated with the tower (two residences, a winch house and derrick crane, store shed, storeshed, engine room and combined workshop/radio room) are constructed variously of weatherboard and fibro sheeting on timber frames, with galvanised iron corrugated asbestos-cement roofs. The lighthouse is situated on the south-west tip of Dent Island approximately 55 nautical miles north of Mackay. The 160ha island is owned by the Commonwealth and designated a Lighthouse Reserve. The southern part of Dent Island, an area of 116.946 ha, which includes the Dent Island Lightstation, is held by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority on behalf of the Commonwealth. The northern part of the island, 196.01 ha, is owned by the state of Queensland. Access is obtained by motor launch.
The red domed, white conical tower of timber-framed, iron clad construction stands 10 m high. A circular cast iron stair case runs inside the tower to the light platform A timber stair winds around the weight tube up to the first floor; above this a fixed ladder gives access to the lantern floor. A fourth order lens and oil wick burner were originally installed in the light. In 1925, the burner was replaced by a 35 mm incandescent kerosene mantle and the intensity of the light increased from 4000 to 225,000 candelas.
Two years later the original lens was replaced by a reconditioned fourth order lens from Cape Cleveland. In 1982 the light was converted to electric operation and down-graded from 18 nautical miles to 10 nautical miles. It is presently surmounted by a 6ft 7.75in diameter lantern manufactured by Chance Brothers of Birmingham, England It is enclosed by a lantern locally made to a Queensland standard design. The present optical apparatus consists of a self-contained electric beacon mounted on the handrail of the tower balcony 1920s Chance Brothers mercury trough pedestal. It is powered by banks of solar cells housed on a north facing prefabricated stand erected close to the tower attached to the balcony handrail. The apparatus gives a character of flashing every five seconds with an intensity of 1310 candelas resulting in a nominal visible range of 10 nautical miles.
Accommodation consists of two timber-framed, fibrocement cottages erected in 1960.
Cottage 1 is a two level building with three bedrooms and a bathroom located on the lower level and living room, kitchen, storage room, toilet, laundry and enclosed verandah on the upper level.
Cottage 2 is of single level construction with three bedrooms, living room, dining, kitchen, laundry, toilet, bathroom and store room and open front verandah. Just up the hill from the tower is a tiny, white picket fence enclosing the grave of a new born baby (apparently the first born of an early lightkeeper). A second grave, of lightkeeper’s daughter Carrie Biss who died at the age of three years in 1885, has a surround of wrought iron pickets and rails with cast iron finials. The burial details are on a marble plaque with inset lead lettering.
Other structures on the site (store shed, engine room and combined workshop/radio room), have concrete floors, are timber-framed and have flat asbestos-cement external wall cladding. A boat ramp is provided at the base of the cliff and concrete steps have been erected to provide access to the upper level. Domestic power is supplied by two diesel alternator sets located in a fibro powerhouse. Associated buildings include a weatherboard bulk fuel store and winch shed located adjacent to the crane landing and haulage way. A diesel powered winch is was used to transfer stores from ship to shore.
It is possible that the place may have Indigenous heritage value. The National estate value of this aspect of the site's heritage significance has yet to be assessed.
10.4. Table demonstrating compliance with the EPBC Act 1999
| Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Regulations 2000 Schedule 7A – Management Plans for Commonwealth Heritage Places | |
| Legislation | Satisfied within |
| A management plan must: | |
| (a) Establish objectives for the identification, protection, conservation, presentation and transmission of the Commonwealth Heritage values of the place; and | Section 2 – Heritage management plan objectives |
| (b) Provide a management framework that includes reference to any statutory requirements and agency mechanisms for the protection of the Commonwealth Heritage values of the place; and | Section 7 – Operational requirements |
| (c) Provide a comprehensive description of the place, including information about its location, physical features, condition, historical context and current uses; and | Section 4 – Dent Island; and |
| (d) Provide a description of the Commonwealth Heritage values and any other heritage values of the place; and | Section 5 – Cultural significance |
| (e) Describe the condition of the Commonwealth Heritage values of the place; and | Section 6 – The fabric of the lightstation |
| (f) Describe the method used to assess the Commonwealth Heritage values of the place; and | Section 1 – Preparation of this heritage management plan |
| (g) Describe the current management requirements and goals including proposals for change and any potential pressures on the Commonwealth Heritage values of the place; and | Section 7 – Operational requirements; and Section 8 – Heritage management policies (Policy 3 & 6) |
| (h) Have policies to manage the Commonwealth Heritage values of a place, and include in those policies, guidance in relation to the following: | |
| i. The management and conservation processes to be used; | Section 8 – Heritage management policies (Policy 1) |
| ii. The access and security arrangements, including access to the area for indigenous people to maintain cultural traditions; | Section 8 – Heritage management policies (Policy 12 and 14) |
| iii. The stakeholder and community consultation and liaison arrangements; | Section 8 – Heritage management policies (Policy 4) |
| iv. The policies and protocols to ensure that indigenous people participate in the management process; | Section 8 – Heritage management policies (Policy 4) |
| v. The protocols for the management of sensitive information; | Not applicable |
| vi. The planning and management of works, development, adaptive re-use and property divestment proposals; | Section 8 – Heritage management policies (Policies 8, 10, 13 and 19) |
| vii. How unforeseen discoveries or disturbances of heritage are to be managed; | Section 8 – Heritage management policies (Policy 20) |
| viii. How, and under what circumstances, heritage advice is to be obtained; | Section 8 – Heritage management policies (Policy 3 and 8) |
| ix. How the condition of Commonwealth Heritage values is to be monitored and reported; | Section 8 – Heritage management policies (Policy 6) |
| x. How records of intervention and maintenance of a heritage places register are kept; | Section 8 – Heritage management policies (Policy 6 and 7) |
| xi. The research, training and resources needed to improve management; | Section 8 – Heritage management policies (Policy 9) |
| xii. How heritage values are to be interpreted and promoted; and | Section 8 – Heritage management policies (Policy 15 and 38) |
| (i) Include an implementation plan; and | Section 9 – Implementation plan |
| (j) Show how the implementation of policies will be monitored; and | Section 9 – Implementation plan |
| (k) Show how the management plan will be reviewed. | Section 8 – Heritage management policies (Policy 5) |
10.5. Map of Dent Island tenure
Figure 13 — Map of Dent Island land tenure including Commonwealth and State jurisdiction (Source: GBRMPA)
10.6. Plan of the elements of Dent Island Lightstation
Figure 14 — Plan of the elements of Dent Island Lightstation
(Source: Hamilton Island Enterprises)
10.7. Lease plans of the Commonwealth part of Dent Island
Figure 15 — Lease plans of the Commonwealth part of Dent Island
(Source: Queensland Land Registry, plan HR2019)
10.8. Dent Island boulders geotechnical inspection March 2010
Figure 16 — Plan showing the location of boulders (Source: Cardno Ullman & Nolan)
10.9. List of introduced plants
This list of plants was made by Hugh Clelland, Manager Resort Presentation, Hamilton Island Enterprises, November 2010.
The following plantings (mostly non-native to Dent Island) were found around the lightstation buildings, and have been planted by various lightkeepers and caretakers.
Palms
Cocos nucifera — coconut palm
Livistona decipiens — cabbage palm
Ptychosperma elegans — elegant palm
Dypsis lutescens — golden cane palm
Calamus species — wait-a-while palm
Arecastrum romanzoffianium — queen palm
Trees
Plumeria species — frangipani (three colours)
Macaranga tanarius
Olea species — olive
Citrus species — citrus fruit
Syzygium leuhmannii — lilly pilly
Ficus opposite — sandpaper fig
Schefflera actinophylla — umbrella tree
Shrubs
Pentas lanceolata
Brunfelsia calycina
Thevetia thevetioides — yellow oleander
Bougainvillea species
Nerium oleander — oleander
Hibiscus species — hibiscus
Others
Hymenocallis species — spider lily
Nephrolepis cordifolia — fishbone fern
Adiantum species — maidenhair fern
Lomandra species
Phyllostachys nigra — black bamboo
Bamboo species (three types)
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0
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