The Cape Willoughby Lighthouse on Kangaroo Island celebrated its 173rd anniversary in January 2025. I possibly first wrote about the Cape Willoughby lighthouse in my article titled Old Jetties Associated with Lighthouses (Part 1) which was published in the MLSSA Newsletter, June 2006, No. 333.
Cape Willoughby lighthouse on Kangaroo Island, South Australia
(Photo courtesy of the RAA’s “SA Move” magazine, Autumn 2025)
That article stated: –
“….. The 27m (or 28m) high Cape Willoughby lighthouse was opened in 1852, making it SA’s first lighthouse. It was constructed from granite and limestone quarried from an adjacent crevice. It was first called the Sturt Light in honour of Captain Charles Sturt. The light first shone in January 1852. The original keepers’ settlement was in a valley ½ mile from the light. It was close to the beach where supplies were landed, and a jetty was built there. Apart from the jetty, the small settlement consisted of a boat ramp, a boat shed, stores building, butchery, blacksmith’s building and two assistant keepers’ cottages. The light keepers would have to walk the ½ mile from the stone cottages to the lighthouse to work. The head keeper’s stone cottage, however, was near the light.
“A report in 1882 suggested that there was difficulty walking the ½ mile hill from the cottages to the lighthouse with the head winds and rain. As a result of the report, new light keepers’ cottages were built close to the lighthouse in 1912. According to “A Cruising Guide to Historic Gulf Ports – Vol.2” by Graham Scarce, however, the keepers’ stone cottages were replaced with timber and fibro ones in 1927. The ruins of the original lighthouse keepers’ cottages and jetty can apparently still be seen.
“Three cottages are said to have been built in 1927 and two are available for short-term use by tourists. It seems that the cottages are called the Seymour and Thomas Cottages.
“The lighthouse became fully automated in 1974.”
I wrote a second article later that same year. The Old Cape Willoughby Light at Kingscote was published in the MLSSA Newsletter, November 2006, No. 338.
That article stated: –
“The Cape Willoughby Lighthouse on Kangaroo Island celebrated its 150th anniversary in January 2002. The actual building of the lighthouse began in 1851. In August that year, Sir Henry Young, the South Australian Governor, whilst opening the new Legislative Council, referred to the building of the lighthouse. Sir Henry said at the time that it was the first lighthouse to be built in the province. (It was also the 17th lighthouse to be built in Australia.) He also named it the Sturt Light after the explorer Captain Charles Sturt (1795-1869). (It has also been referred to as the Sturt Tower and/or Sturt Lighthouse.)
The present-day Cape Willoughby lighthouse.
(Photo by Noeleen Reynolds)
“Captain Charles Sturt was appointed Registrar General and Treasurer (and Colonial Secretary?) in Adelaide in 1846. As Colonial Secretary, he “raised money from shipping and insurance interests to safeguard the dangerous transit of Backstairs Passage with a lighthouse, for the increasing use of the approaches to Adelaide from the east”. These private funds enabled the impressively sited tower to be built of local materials, together with three timber-framed houses constructed in the small bay to the north. The Sturt Light’s tower was built in a (then) very inaccessible position. It was constructed with basically crude, ready to hand materials – i.e. undressed limestone and granite in lime mortar. The granite and limestone were quarried from a nearby crevice.
“A strong wooden staircase inside the tower used the walls as their support. Under pressure from locals, via Parliament, the wooden staircase was replaced by a lightweight steel staircase assembly, which, in a reversal of the original concept, helped to support the 26m high walls. A light fibreglass canopy housed the light itself, which was a simple reflector lantern. The overall height of the lighthouse tower was some 27-28m. It started operating in January 1852 (10th or 16th?). It was officially opened on 10th January, but it has been said that it first shone on 16th January. About 1902, the light from the Tiparra Reef (off of Port Hughes & Moonta Bay) in Spencer Gulf was installed in the lighthouse, replacing the original reflector lantern. The top section then weighed some 7 tonnes. The mechanism for the new light had been designed and built by Chance Brothers of Birmingham, England in 1872. The lens assembly would rotate effortlessly in a bath of mercury. An incandescent mantle fuelled by kerosene and hand pumped air provided the 1205 candlepower light. A mechanism provided the power to maintain rotation of the light. The pull of a heavy weight on a cable turned a series of gears at a steady rate. The weight was required to be re-wound periodically by the lightkeeper. This second light was itself removed from the lighthouse in 1974 when the lighthouse was to become fully automated.
“John Downing tells me that demolition work on the old lighthouse had begun in 1972. He says that the old masonry was showing the strain of supporting the great weight of the cast iron mechanism at its head. The old tower was condemned, as the 7-tonne weight of the top section was too heavy.”
Although the lighthouse was demolished in 1972, it was given new life when it was rebuilt at Kingscote: –
“John Downing was the Chairman of the recently formed Kangaroo Island branch of the National Trust of South Australia at the time. The branch acquired the parts of the light for re-erection on a symbolic tower.”
Rebuilt lighthouse at Kingscote
(Photo courtesy of Phyllis Bartram and John Downing)
Further details can be found in The Old Cape Willoughby Light at Kingscote in the MLSSA Newsletter, November 2006, No. 338.
References:
The Old Cape Willoughby Light at Kingscote, by Steve Reynolds, MLSSA Newsletter, November 2006, No. 338.
“Cape Willoughby Lighthouse” by John Downing (an excerpt from “Kangaroo Island: The First 200 Years” Instalment 9 by Neville Cordes)
“The story of “The Old Cape Willoughby Light”, National Trust of South Australia Kangaroo Island Branch (available from Hope Cottage).
“South Australia – What’s in a Name?” by Rodney Cockburn, Axiom Publishing, 2002. ISBN 0 9592519 1 X.
“Great Australian Explorers” by Marcia McEwan, Bay Books, 1985. ISBN 0 85835 864 6.
Old Jetties Associated with Lighthouses (Part 1), by Steve Reynolds, MLSSA Newsletter, June 2006, No.333.
“The Cruel Sea”, Newspapers in Education series, Part two – Lighthouses of the SA coast, The Advertiser, 27th September 2005.
“See the light”, an Advertiser Travel SA feature, The Advertiser “Review”.
“The Lighthouse That Moved” by John Downing.
Other papers and correspondence from Phyll Bartram, including notes for her father’s OAM (summarized by her sister Kate).
“A Cruising Guide to Historic Gulf Ports – Vol.2 (Investigator Strait and Kangaroo Island)” by Graham Scarce, Kingsley Publications, 1985.
“The Jetties of South Australia – Past and Present” by Neville Collins, published by the author, 2005. ISBN 0-9580482-2-3.