Bruny Island Lighthouse

We visited this on a wild and windy day with sleet and mist the order of the morning.
We walked to the lighthouse and booked a tour which was worth it as the guide was quite a passionate historian in relation to lighthouses and was the current keeper at the time of our visit.
He explained how the lighthouse used to work and explained how in the earlier days of lighthouse tending many of the keepers succumbed to mercury poisoning as a result of long term exposure to the chemical.
Back in the day…mercury was used to float the extremely heavy crystal and allow it to rotate evenly.
Many people around the world still tend lighthouses although technology is fast ensuring that all of them become completely automatic thereby reducing the need for lighthouse keepers at all.
Sad really…such a remote and private existence although certain that someone might want to preserve the tradition and move in for their 6 month stint.
The circular style staircases I always find mesmerizing and the building itself was completed by convict labour from the nearby convict settlement.Read more