Cape Otway lighthouse

Cape Otway Lighthouse is the oldest surviving lighthouse on mainland Australia and is considered the most significant.

Built in 1848, the lighthouse, known as the ‘Beacon of Hope,’ sits 90 metres above the pristine ocean of Bass Strait. It was decommissioned in January 1994 after being the longest continuous operating light on the Australian mainland.

Hundreds of lives were lost along this shipwreck coast – a sad but fascinating history that led to the building of the Lightstation on the cliffs edge.

Eight ships were wrecked along the coast of Cape Otway. These included Marie (1851), Sacramento (1853), Schomberg (1855), Loch Ard (1878), and Joseph H. Scammell (May 1891), Fiji (September 1891), and the Casino in 1932. The first American vessel sunk during World War II, the SS City of Rayville, was also sunk off the Cape by a German mine in 1940, which sank less than 24 hours after the British Ship S.S. Cambridge off Wilsons Promontory. The Americans built a radar bunker on the cape in 1942, which is now open to the public.Read more