Sugarloaf Point Lighthouse

The Sugarloaf Point lighthouse introduced a partnership of two men who would play a vital part in the lighting of the New South Wales Coastline, Francis Hixson RN and James Barnet, Colonial Architect.

Hixson had a dream ‘to light the coast of NSW like a highway’. Barnet was the man who would realise Hixson’s dream.

History

The Sugarloaf Point Lighthouse was completed in 1875, ten years after it was first recommended a light be placed to highlight the nearby Seal Rocks. It was originally intended to place the light on Seal Rocks but landing was difficult and the proposition was abandoned.

Construction of the lighthouse was undertaken by John McLeod under the supervision of Edward Moriarty, Engineer-in-Chief for Harbours and River Navigation. On the 6th of October 1874 James Barnet and members of the Marine Board , including Hixson and Moriarty, laid the foundation stone.

The tower is constructed of brick, rendered and painted white. Also constructed were three adjoining cottages, various outbuildings, the construction of the road from Bungwahl, and a 1500 foot long jetty which was used to land some 1800 tons of building supplies and materials. 

The Chance Brothers first order sixteen panel lens exhibited a five second flash of 50,000 cd every 30 sec. An auxiliary light is exhibited aproximately five metres below the main light to warn of the dangers of Seal Rocks. The fouth order optic originally exhibited a fixed green light of 150 cd. The auxiliary light was converted from green to red in December 1984.

The light was upgraded in 1911 with the installation of a 55mm vapourised kerosene Schmidt-Ford IOV burner increasing the intensity from 50,000 to 122,00 Cd and again in 1923 with the introduction of autoform mantles. The light was converted to electricity in June 1966 increasing the main light’s intensity to 1,000,000 cd and the auxiliary light to 25,000 cd. The main optic pedestal was replaced with a newly developed thrust bearing pedestal designed by the CLS which remains in use. This allowed the speed of the lens rotation to be increased changing the light character to the current single white flash every 7.5 seconds. One of the three keepers was withdrawn at this time.

 continued below …

continued from above …

One of Australia’s biggest shipping disasters occurred off Sugarloaf Point;- the wreck of the Catterthun at 2.25am on the 8th of August 1895 on the outer Seal Rock when bound from Sydney to China with the loss of fifty five lives. 

Keepers

We need your help in compiling a list of keepers for this lighthouse. If you have any information then send it to keeper@lighthouses.org.au.

Please include this lighthouse’s name, the keepers full name and what years they were keepers. Also include the same information for any other lights they were on.