Caloundra Lighthouses
Caloundra Lighthouses are a heritage-listed pair of lighthouses at 3 Canberra Terrace, near Arthur Street, Kings Beach, Caloundra, Sunshine Coast Region, Queensland, Australia. The first, known as the Old Caloundra Light, was designed by Francis Drummond Greville Stanley and built in 1896; the second, New Caloundra Light, was built in 1968. They were added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 5 February 2010. History The Caloundra Head Lighthouses played an integral role in Queensland's system of coastal navigation aids from the 1890s to the 1970s and remain prominent landmarks from Moreton Bay and in the Caloundra district. From construction of the first lighthouse in 1896 through to the decommissioning of the second (1968) lighthouse in 1978 the lights on Caloundra Head guided mariners to the northern entrance to the North West Channel – the safest, most reliable and consequently the most used entry channel to the Port of Brisbane. Despite no longer operating as lighthouses, community support for the conservation of both structures has ensured their survival, while the image of the 1896 lighthouse, Caloundra's oldest surviving structure, has endured as one of the most significant symbols of the town. Background When Queensland separated from New South Wales in 1859 the new colony had only one lightstation: Cape Moreton Light on Moreton Island, which had a stone lighthouse erected in 1856. (The Raine Island Beacon constructed in 1844 by the British navy was no longer in use.) This situation was untenable for a colony that relied heavily on coastal shipping. In the 1860s and 1870s the expansion of pastoral and mining activity in northern Queensland led to the establishment of new coastal ports to service the developing hinterlands and the provision of coastal navigation aids became essential. In 1864 the Queensland Government appointed a select committee to investigate the state of harbours and rivers in the colony. A direct outcome of this inquiry was the construction of the Bustard Head Light south-east of Gladstone in 1867–68 and a lighthouse at Sandy Cape in 1870 – the first lighthouses built by the Queensland colonial government. These were prefabricated iron-framed structures with bolted or riveted cast-iron plate cladding and internal iron staircases, the whole imported from England. By 1873, the year of the inaugural Intercolonial Coast Lighthouse Conference in Sydney, Queensland had 39 lights along its coastline. The conference was the first attempt to coordinate coastal lights and signals around Australia. Recommendations included the need for more coastal lights in Queensland. Although there was general agreement on the recommendations, there were no moves by any of the colonies to cede their control of lighthouses and other coastal signals to a centralised body or to adopt standardised designs for coastal lights. Lighthouse design continued to take into account local conditions and readily available building materials. Often the local materials were augmented with specialised fittings such as stairways, lantern rooms, lenses, and clock work mechanisms from overseas companies. For the third lighthouse built by the Queensland colonial government (Lady Elliot Island Light erected on