New Lady Elliot Island Lighthouse: Great Barrier Reef’s Skeletal Tower

Summary: New Lady Elliot Island Lighthouse, a steel skeletal tower activated on Great Barrier Reef's southernmost coral cay in 1995, stands near the first light.

new lighthouse on Lady Elliot Island: Walloper69 at en.wikipedia, CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Although a small coral cay of 0.17 square miles (0.45 square kilometers), Lady Elliot Island houses two lighthouses.

The cay’s critical location at the southernmost edge of Australia’s formidable Great Barrier Reef and at a close offshore distance of only 46 nautical miles (53 miles; 85 kilometers) northeast of Queensland’s southeastern river city of Bundaberg necessitates a permanent navigational aid.

From 1866 to 1872, a temporary light, suspended by the Anglo-Australian Guano Company from the flagstaff of a topmast, provided haphazard guidance for ships.

Visbility was dangerously obscured by treetops after destruction of the flagstaff during a heavy gale lowered the light’s perch until communication-delayed transportation of a shipwright via a Maryborough pilot vessel for replacement of flagstaff and topmast.

A permanent lighthouse, innovatively constructed of a timber frame with a cladding, or covering, of wrought iron, was completed in 1873.

In 1995, 13 years after automation in 1982, the original Lady Elliot Island Lighthouse was deactivated.

The old lighthouse, although no longer in service, passively confirms geographic location as a day mark for planes and ships. Old Lady Elliot Island Lighthouse’s distinctive color scheme of red dome atop a white tower, freshened during an external painting in 2007, serves as a unique visual identifier, or day mark.

Designed with a fully automated, solar-powered light, the New Lady Elliot Lighthouse entered active service in 1995.

Sited near its shorter predecessor of 59 feet (18 meters), the new lighthouse soars to a height of 105 feet (32 meters).

Maintained and operated by the Australia Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA), the New Lady Elliot Island Lighthouse is not open to the public.

Painted white but presenting a completely different silhouette from its predecessor, the New Lady Elliot Island Lighthouse is a square, skeletal tower of steel. Its top features a white fiberglass hut with a gallery.

Although only viewable in glimpses by Lady Elliot Island Eco Resort guests during their plethora of enjoyable nature experiences, the New Lady Elliot Island Lighthouse presents a committed silhouette as a modern navigational aid and contrasts surprisingly pleasantly with its nearby predecessor, the Old Lady Elliot Island Lighthouse.

Both lighthouses are worth viewing as their very existence attests to the strategic importance of such a little coral cay within the grand scheme of safe navigation through Australia's astounding Great Barrier Reef.

Lady Elliot Island Eco Resort
contact details for day trips and overnight stays:
fax: +61 7 4156 4400
telephone: +61 7 4156 4444
website: www.ladyelliot.com.au

aerial view of Lady Elliot Island's two lighthouses, modern (right) and older (left): (WT-shared) Inas at wts wikivoyage, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

aerial view of Lady Elliot Island’s two lighthouses ~ modern (right), original (left): (WT-shared) Inas at wts wikivoyage, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Australia_lei_lighthouse.jpg

new lighthouse on Lady Elliot Island: Walloper69 at en.wikipedia, CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:New_Lady_Elliot_Lighthouse.jpg

For further information:

Marriner, Derdriu. "Lady Elliot Island: Eco Resort in Green Zone of Great Barrier Reef." Earth and Space News. Monday, Aug. 24, 2015.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2015/08/lady-elliot-island-eco-resort-in-green.html

Marriner, Derdriu. "Lady Elliot Island Lighthouse: First Queensland Iron Plated Timber Light." Earth and Space News. Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2015.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2015/09/lady-elliot-island-lighthouse-1st.html