Rottnest Island Lighthouse

This lighthouse is now known as the Wadjemup Lighthouse.

The original lighthouse on this site was one of the first two lighthouses built in Western Australia, the other Arthurs Head was discontinued when Woodman Point was commissioned on the 23rd of August 1902 and subsequently demolished.

History

Rottnest Island got its name in 1696 when Willem de Vlamingh landed there and found an animal that was a ‘kind of rat, as big as a common cat’. He called the island Rottnest, which means ‘Rats Nest’. We know these small marsupials today as quokkas.

The island was originally settled by Europeans in 1831, but was taken over by the Colonial Government in 1839 and converted to a penal settlement for Aboriginal men and boys.

The first lighthouse tower on the island was completed in 1849 using Aboriginal convict labour. Though it was 20 metres tall, it was still 3 metres shorter than originally planned and had taken 9 years to build due to poor skills and the penal environment.

Living quarters for the lightkeeper were built around the base.

Made from locally quarried stone from Nancy Cove, it was the first lighthouse to be built in stone in Western Australia. The lighthouse did not operate until 1851 when the revolving lamp and clockwork mechanism was fitted.

The machinery for the revolving catoptric light was designed and made in Fremantle. This enabled the light to be opened a year earlier than waiting for a apparatus to arrive from England.

The first light flashed for 5 seconds in the minute and was visible for 18 nautical miles. The light consumed some 3 gallons of coconut oil per week, although later kerosene was used as a fuel.

The lighthouse was officially opened on the same day in 1851 as the Arthur Head Lighthouse at Fremantle.

In 1881 the locally made glass in the lantern was replaced by imported glass to improve clarity and range.

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Towards the end of the nineteenth century, it was decided to replace the lighthouse with a new one twice as high and with a more powerful light, situated alongside the old one on Wadjemup Hill.

The small square stone building adjacent to the lighthouse is all that remains of the first lighthouse.

The new tower, completed in 1896, was designed by W T Douglass, in London, who was also responsible for the Cape Leeuwin and Woodman Point lights. Construction was under the supervision of the colony’s Engineer-in-Chief, C Y O’Connor.

C Y O’Connor is famous for the water supply pipeline to Kalgoorlie Goldfields in the dry inland of Australia. He took his life tragically when people lost faith in the scheme, and therefore never saw it successfully transform the goldfields to a booming inland city.

The new lighthouse, like the first lighthouse, was also built of limestone from Nancy Cove. This time the stone was transported to Wadjemup Hill along a short railway line.

The lantern room was fitted with a focal radius rotating lens (first order dioptric) manufactured by Chance Brothers and Co Limited, Lighthouse Engineers, near Birmingham. A mercury bath and pedestal was installed in 1929.

In 1936 the light source, consisting of a six-wick kerosene burner, was converted to electricity and made semi-automatic. At that time, the two assistant lightkeeper positions were abolished and it became a one-man station. The light was converted to fully automatic operation in 1986. The electric supply comes from the island settlement’s power station. The light was demanned in 1990.

During the Meckering Earthquake a quantity of the mercury spilled out of its bath.

A subsidiary light was established on Bathurst Point in September 1900.

As a major coastal light, the Main Rottnest Lighthouse was passed to Commonwealth control in 1915 under the Navigation Act of 1912. The Rottnest Island Authority purchased the lighthouse and leased it back to the Australian Maritime Safety Authority.

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.