Cape Byron Light House
Cape Byron lighthouse is situated on a rocky outcrop beside the Pacific Ocean and is the most easterly point of Australia. It was named by English explorer Captain James Cook when he discovered Australia in 1770.
Lighthouses were designed and built to save lives, dispel fear, and provide safe passage for ocean vessels. In essence they were vitally important for marine trade.
Although lighthouses have been in existence since the ancient world, where they were little more than bon fires scattered along the shoreline, modern day lighthouses, where the light did not emanate from a simple fire, originated from an English scientific invention in 1763 based on reflected light from a mirror. A further advancement occurred in 1823 when a Frenchman by the name of Augustin Fresnel whose interest was designing lenses to collect and focus light, combined a lens (later called a Fresnel lens) with the British designed mirror.
The result set a new standard for light brilliance and intensity.
Later developments included revolving lights that could be distinguished more easily from other lights along a shoreline. Eventually each new lighthouse had its own ‘light code’ or ‘ light signature’ which could be used by ship navigators to identify a particular lighthouse and thus the ships location. This simple idea relied on the duration of the light beam, based on its speed while revolving in a 360° arc.
The Byron Bay lighthouse was built in 1901 and is about 118 meters above the ocean. It was designed like all lighthouses with a revolving light to warn ships passing in the night of the coastline, especially during storms when the night is at it’s darkest and the need to know where the shoreline is or other dangerous perils is at its greatest.
The light is generated by an eight ton optical flashing lens was made by a French company in Paris and contains 760 pieces of highly polished prismatic glass. The lens revolves in a bath of mercury and flashed in any one particular direction every 15 seconds. The mirror is two meters in diameter and revolves permanently even during the day. From this location it can be seen up to 27 nautical miles.
Until 1989 the lighthouse was kept by a lighthouse keeper who was based permanently at the lighthouse. After 1989 technology was to replace the human need. Technology in the form of onboard satellite navigation also meant that visible shoreline light was no longer needed by the maritime industry and thus many lighthouses were made all but redundant.
Originally the light was generated by kerosene burners but these were replaced in 1956 by a 1000-watt tungsten halogen lamp powered by electricity, equal in power to 2.2 million candles, and is one of the most powerful lights in the southern hemisphere.
The building itself is made from concrete blocks and stands 18 meters in height it is managed by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority
From its rocky headland you can see far both up and down the coast far out into the Pacific Ocean. It is approx 800 kilometers to Sydney and 175 kilometers to Brisbane and receives around 50,000 visitors a year.
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