Lighthouses
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Light 651.2 at the Hartley Bay Breakwater
The following is about one of the remarkable chapters in the life of this aboriginal community. On March 22, 2006, the people of Hartley Bay helped rescue the passengers of the BC Ferries vessel Queen of the North, by arriving before the Canadian Coast Guard. The town community centre was turned into a rescue center with the small community providing aid. According to Betsy Reece, "everyone not out on the water was helping keep people warm and fed at the cultural centre." The town's populace received the Governor General's Commendation for Outstanding Service on May 3, 2006, for "initiative, selflessness and an extraordinary commitment to the well-being of others" in the rescue; the honour also cites the town's "tremendous spirit and the remarkable example it has set".
The Lady Bay Lighthouse Complex is of architectural significance as a fine example of Public Works Department architecture of the 1850s and 1880s. The modest but dignified and sturdy lighthouse structures are indicative of the importance of lighthouses to the communities that relied upon them to facilitate safe passage for shipping, at a time when such transport was crucial to relatively isolated towns like Warrnambool.
Black Lighthouse - Queenscliff
Operational in 1862, the Queenscliff High Light, also variously known as the Black Lighthouse, Fort Queenscliff Lighthouse or Shortland Bluff Light, stands 18 metres high in the grounds of Fort Queenscliff in Queenscliff, Victoria, Australia. This is one of just a few black lighthouse in the world and the only one in the southern hemisphere.
Container Ship Entering English Bay
Point Atkinson Lighthouse in the foreground looking across the Straight of Georgia to Vancouver Island mountains in the distance. First lighthouse built in 1874, current hexagonal concrete tower was erected in 1912.
The white lighthouse at Queenscliff, also known as the Lower Lighthouse, was built 1862 to replace an earlier wooden lighthouse erected in 1853. It is built of the same bluestone that was used to build the Black Lighthouse but was painted white to distinguish it in daylight. The new light was built in conjunction with the White (Low) Lighthouse and therefore had many similarities in design. The lamps and housings were manufactured by Chance Brothers in England. The light was converted to gas in 1890 and later converted to electricity in 1924. The lighthouse forms the front, or low, of a system of lights that gives mid-channel direction when in line with the High Light. The light, automated, is now unmanned.
CAPE Otway Lightstation is the oldest, surviving lighthouse in mainland Australia. The light, which has been in continuous operation since 1848, is perched on towering sea cliffs where Bass Strait and the Southern Ocean collide. For thousands of immigrants, after many months at sea, Cape Otway was their first sight of land after leaving Europe.
Cape Jaffe on which is located the Robe Lighthouse, a star-shaped concrete tower which was built in 1972. It is 3.5 metres wide at the bottom, and slants towards 5 metres wide at the top. In the early days of settlement, Robe was the main port for the south-east of South Australia and the border country.
"The Empress of Japan, McCann reminds us, is “one of the trio of the Canadian Pacific Railway Company's first generation of 'White Empresses,' those ships that were the company's final links in its drive to create an extension of its trans-Canada railway system right through to the Orient and Australasia . . . This ship was once Vancouver's one and major link with the Orient—a ship so lovely in appearance that school children used to be taken down to see her pass in and out of the harbor on her regular schedule, a schedule that was maintained from 1891 to 1922.” by Leonard G. McCann, curator emeritus at the Vancouver Maritime Museum
Lady Bay Lower Lighthouse - Warrnambool
The square tower was originally built in 1854 as one of two obelisks on Flagstaff Hill. The light was originally used in its predecessor, the Beach Lighthouse, built in 1859. This lighthouse was the leading lighthouse but was ineffective due to lack of elevation. During 1871-72, the light was relocated to the top of the obelisk. At the same time the old Middle Island Lighthouse was relocated stone by stone to replace the other obelisk further up Flagstaff Hill to become the Lady Bay Upper Light. The light was originally powered by oil, then gas and finally electricity. The Lower Lighthouse is still in use.