Cape Bowling Green lighthouse
Sunday 6 July 2008
Since I was in Sydney for other reasons, I arranged with the Australian National Maritime Museum to have a close look at the Cape Bowling Green lighthouse on display there. This was the second of a series of timber framed, iron plated towers designed by Queensland architect Robert Ferguson (1840-1906). It was built in 1874 on a sandy cape south of Townsville. In 1987 the lighthouse was dismantled and taken away for display at the planned National Maritime Museum at Darling Harbour.
The lighthouse, as displayed at the museum, is equipped with an old optical apparatus. The 3rd order catadioptric lens runs on roller bearings, rotated by a weight-driven clock, as originally installed in 1874. The light source is an incandescent kerosene lamp, as installed in 1913.