Point Quobba Lighthouse

The tower is about 10.9m high and 3.6m in diameter. The focal plane is 14m above ground level or 48.7m above sea level.

History

Until 1948 Quobba Point was known as Point Charles. It was renamed when the Commonwealth Lighthouse Service decided to build a lighthouse on the point – it could have created confusion with the lighthouse at Point Charles in the Northern Territory.

Tenders for the construction of a reinforced concrete lighthouse at Quobba Point were opened in June 1949. The tender was won by Mr SV Adams whose price was £5,784. The lighthouse was not manned – it was fitted with a sunvalve to automatically light and extinguish the lamp that was powered by acetylene.

Before construction could begin, a road had to be built to the site, which is approximately 75km north-west of Carnarvon.

The West Australian newspaper noted on 3 September 1949 that building would commence ‘when materials were available’. The following month, the paper reported that the lighthouse tender Cape Otway had arrived at Fremantle and discharged 25 tons of materials for the new lighthouse.

The lantern and staircase from the Point Cloates lighthouse, which had been replaced by an offshore steel skeletal tower in 1936, were re-used at the Point Quobba lighthouse.

The tower originally had a concrete gallery and railing, but by 1979 large cracks had appeared, and the gallery was replaced by a steel gallery and railing. The first order lens, which had come from Cape Wickham, was removed in 1988 when the light was converted to solar power.

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If you can assist with more history on this lighthouse please contact keeper@lighthouses.org.au.

Keepers

Point Quobba was constructed as a fully automatic light.