Monday 16 August 2010
On Saturday Margie and I saw the film South Solitary and thoroughly enjoyed it. It brought to mind the four different lighthouses closely connected with the film. And it reminded me that I still want to go to Maatsuyker Island, the place that inspired the film.
This is the Maatsuyker Island Lighstation, the most southern of Australian lighthouses, off the south coast of Tasmania, on which the fictional South Solitary Lightstation is based. This photo was taken on the day in 1891 when a party of
VIPs came to celebrate the inauguration of the light, and had a warm, calm and sunny day. Most days, the weather at Maatsuyker Island is foul — here in the Roaring Forties the lightkeepers endured almost constant wind and rain. The remoteness of the site and the tedious weather were essential story elements, but they made it impractical as a film location. Also, the name Maatsuyker Island doesn’t evoke the necessary feelings of remoteness and privation, except to lighthouse tragics like me. [
State Library of Tasmania]
This is the lighthouse at Cape Nelson (1884), near Portland in Victoria, where most scenes in the film were shot. As I know from a couple of inspections in 2006, it’s an easy drive from several comfortable motels, and a more practical film location than Maatsuyker Island.
This is Cape Otway Lighthouse (1846), where the scenes inside the lantern room were shot. Cape Nelson no longer has an original first order optical apparatus, but Cape Otway does. This drawing shows the original lantern house and parabolic reflector apparatus, not the later nineteenth century Chance Brothers lantern house and catadioptric apparatus we saw in the film. [
National Archives of Australia]
This is the real South Solitary Island Lightstation (1880), on a beautiful day in April 2007 when I flew in for an inspection. It’s close to the coast of Northern New South Wales, near Woolgoolga. It’s not really very south, except in relation to the other Solitary Islands, of which there are more than this one.
An original drawing for South Solitary Island Lighthouse. It’s a typical New South Wales tower designed in the office of James Barnet,
NSW Colonial Architect — just as Maatsuyker Island is typically Tasmanian in style, and Cape Nelson and Cape Otway are characteristically Victorian. [
National Archives of Australia]
Margie commented on 24 August 2010
The original drawings are very beautiful - as are your photographs. You struck great weather for your visit to South Solitary.
Christine Sayer commented on 25 August 2010
thanks for this Peter and Margie; we are heading south for the Sept. hols ; driving the Great Ocean Road; staying 2 nights in Apollo Bay; to explore Cape Otway and then 2 nights in Portland; so we will visit two of the lighthouses mentioned here...will try to squeeze in the movie as well
Fiona commented on 26 August 2010
Maatsuyker. [sigh]. Perhaps you could use an assistant? A caddy for your photographic gear?
Peter Marquis-Kyle commented on 26 August 2010
Oh Fiona, thanks for the offer! I can see you there, with the golf umbrella, catching the breeze.
