Cape Bruny Lighthouse - TAS

The Cape Bruny Lighthouse is at the top of a steep walk track starting from this point on the south-western edge of the cape on South Bruny Island. Visitors will enjoy spectacular views of the Southern Ocean from the vista. Public access is restricted to 10am - 4pm daily. The lighthouse was designed by John Lee Archer and convict built in 1836. It is the second-oldest manned lighthouse in Australia. Construction of the lighthouse was completed over two years using locally quarried rock. The apparatus, providing the illumination, consisted of fifteen lamps. Sperm whale and various other oils were originally used to fuel the lamps but after 1892 the improved colza oil came into use. The lighthouse reserve was 184 acres of rough country that was used by the early keepers who fenced paddocks for grazing and grew crops, vegetables. They also produced hay for the horses, and trained bullocks to transport stores over the sandy stretches between the jetty and the settlement. There are still the remains of the convict garden on the sheltered side by the beach. In 1998 the reserve become part of the new Labillardiere National Park.