Hand lit kerosine beacons led the way

LINDSAY TITMARSH

NAVIGATION for shipping has always been a skilled operation.

Back in time, the sun and stars were useful for offshore navigation, but where precise inshore channels needed to be followed, they were totally inadequate.

Many years ago, for cargo and passenger vessels to access the busy port of Maryborough, required many navigational aids to be constructed.

From Woody Island in Hervey Bay to Tin Can Bay in Great Sandy Strait, and up the Mary River to Maryborough, they guided the mariners, day and night.

As the Mary River was very shallow, the larger vessels from yesteryear had to stick to the deeper channels.

The Woody Island lighthouses – that is another story.

Prior to 1977, when all navigation systems on the Fraser Coast were converted to battery power, kerosene lights and wooden beacons did the job.

For daytime navigation, wooden A-frames (as shown here) were situated on prominent headlands, islands, or even on sandbanks.

As these guides had to be visible during the hours of darkness as well, each had a kerosene light attached.

The structure in the foreground was usually positioned near the water’s edge, or low down on a headland or sandbank.

The other upside-down frame was always placed well behind and higher up than the front one.

Kerosene lights were enclosed in weatherproof glass and metal cabinets which had a windproof breathing mechanism.

Each had a reflector behind to focus the small burning flame.

These beacons required constant attention. In case of supply difficulties, their kerosene supply could last for over a week, but most times they were serviced weekly.

The last lamplighters on the service boat M V (motor vessel) Mary, were local residents, Bob Burns and Noel Witt.

After loading supplies for lighthouse staff on a Monday morning, they motored down the river, ‘doing’ the lights as they went.

As each set of beacons was reached, skipper Noel would heave-to, allowing Bob to row a little dory over to the bank to do the servicing.

On arrival, Bob would open the cabinet, blow the flame out, refill the kero tank, and then trim and check the flame wick.

It had to be level otherwise a high corner could produce a longer flame, thereby smoking the glass black.

After that, he then had to walk to the rear beacon and repeat the procedure.

The reason the rear beacon was always higher, was, when viewed from out on the water, it could be seen above the front one.

This is how the system operated. On entering the enclosed waters of Great Sandy Strait, a ship’s captain, or for large vessels, a pilot from the Port of Maryborough, would steer the vessel so as to vertically line up the first set of beacons to come into view.

Obviously, if a vessel kept on a course heading for a beacon situated on land, then it would run aground.

This did not happen, because at some point, the channel changed direction, allowing another set of A-frames, or at night-time, two vertical lights further on to be used. By having the forward and rear beacons some distance apart ensured no error occurred during line-up.

Many or the rear beacons on mangrove lined foreshores were at the end of a cleared corridor, so could not be mistakenly viewed when it was not their turn.

Similarly, where necessary, light cabinets had sides blackened out to avoid the confusion of multiple lights being viewed from all directions.

In some places, floating buoys with an attached light guided ships around corners.

We will never again see wooden beacons and kerosene lights guiding mariners, however the remnants of a few of them can still be found.