Spotlight on International Lighthouse Weekend

Spotlight on International Lighthouse Weekend                     

August 14, 2009
 
This weekend is a chance to share in the history and spectacle of NSW’s heritage Lighthouses.
 
August 15-16 marks International Lighthouse Weekend and the Australian National Maritime Museum at Darling Harbour is hosting a family fun day on Sunday.
 
The day will include tours inside the 1874 Cape Bowling Green Lighthouse, morse code demonstrations and all the National Maritime Museum has to offer.
 
Ports and Waterways Minister Joe Tripodi said this weekend is a chance to acknowledge lighthouse’s ongoing contribution to maritime safety,
 
“The technology may have changed but NSW Maritime still keeps the lights burning in 13 lighthouses along the State’s coastline,” Mr Tripodi said.
 
“International Lighthouse Weekend is an annual event started in 1995 by a Scottish amateur radio group to promote public awareness of lighthouses and lightships and their need for preservation and restoration.  
 
“NSW Maritime stepped in in 1997 to ensure the ongoing operation of lighthouses to preserve the unique heritage, tradition and basic safety function they continue to provide the boating community.”  
 
Mr Tripodi said NSW Maritime had spent close to $120,000 over the past five years, upgrading and maintaining lighthouse lights along the NSW coast.  “This upkeep is part of a larger program to keep the system of navigation markers functioning statewide.
 
“In fact, NSW Maritime has recently awarded a tender for the next three years which will see more than $7.5 million spent to keep the entire system of navigation markers and lights working.”
 
NSW Maritime is responsible for the light operation and power systems of 13 lighthouses dotted along the coast from the far north to the State’s south:  
 
• Point Danger
• Fingal Head
• Ballina Head
• Evans Head
• Tacking Point
• Crowdy Head
• Point Stephens
• Norah Head
• Barranjoey Head
• Kiama
• Warden Head
• Brush Island
• Burrewarra Point
 
For more information about NSW lighthouses visit: www.maritime.nsw.gov.au/mpd/lighthouses.html