A wandering light

The travels of Cape Bowling Green lighthouse.

Discover how how the 113-year old Cape Bowling Green Light was removed from a remote cape in far north Queensland in in 1986 after it was decommissioned and sold to the Australian National Maritime Museum.

At 22 metres tall Cape Bowling Green Lighthouse seems a solid, immovable structure. In fact, it was designed for ready disassembly and has been moved at least three times in its 150-year life.

The parts making up the original lighthouse had a penchant for travelling even before assembly. It appears that the metal cladding, cast iron lantern room, mechanism and lens were manufactured in Britain. The ironbark timber structure was milled and fitted in Maryborough, then shipped out on the schooners Henry Albert and Fairy to the Cape.  The lighthouse apparatus was shipped from Brisbane on the schooner Dawn.

Cape Bowling Green is a sandy spit jutting out into the Coral Sea about 70km south of Townsville. Joseph Henry Carter attended the light at Cape Bowling Green for a year from 1910. His son Bill Carter recorded the mobile nature of the lighthouse:

Cape Bowling Green… was nothing but a sandy flat, mostly tidal flats, especially at king tides.  Three times, erosion of [the] outer beach made it necessary for the lighthouse to be shifted back from the sea, the last time it was moved it was rebuilt on a wooden frame base… A great disaster not far from Cape Bowling Green was the loss of the Yongala… My Dad was on watch in the lighthouse when the worst of the blow was on, and he said that the tower literally danced on its foundations… [as the] main bolts to hold it to the foundation had not been replaced when the last shift of the tower was done.

Newspapers record the lighthouse being moved in 1878 and 1908, and the keeper's quarters in 1891. The 1908 move was the most arduous. The lightkeepers initially retrieved the lens and mechanism using a derrick, and moved them to the nearby keepers’ cottages with a goat team. The lighthouse was soon afterwards disassembled and moved, piece by piece, to high ground at the end of the Cape – 1200 feet from its last location. During the process:

all the defective portions of the building were renewed, and portions of the clockwork… had new fittings manufactured in Brisbane.  In fact, practically a new lighthouse has been constructed...

This was not the first or last time the lighthouse was changed. Perhaps the most significant modification was destaffing and automation in 1920. The kerosene fuel system was replaced with acetylene and a sun valve controlled the operation of the light.

How do you move a building from a remote cape in far north Queensland? In 1987 the 113-year old Cape Bowling Green Light was superseded by radar beacon, decommissioned and sold to the Australian National Maritime Museum. Somehow, the museum had to transport a 22-metre structure from Cape Bowling Green to Darling Harbour, Sydney. So, how does a lighthouse travel over 2000km?

The images below show how museum staff, the lighthouse service, a firm of engineers, two helicopters, two amphibious vehicles, a lighthouse tender and a naval vessel made this possible.  The project took place in September 1987.

In 1993, the Australian National Maritime Museum was ready to rebuild the Cape Bowling Green Light. After some discussion, a site near the wharf was selected. Reconstruction of the lighthouse started in late 1993.  

The lighthouse was reconstructed by participants in LEAP (Landcare and Environment Action Program). The scheme allowed young unemployed people to gain skills while delivering environmental and cultural heritage projects. We only have the names of a few of the participants. If you are one of the participants or know someone who was, we’d love to hear from you.