Clarence River Light, Maritime navigation tower in Yamba, Australia
Clarence River Light is a concrete tower built in 1955 on Pilot Hill in Wooli Park, Yamba, south of the Clarence River entrance. It serves as the rear range light for two ranges and shows three white flashes every 15 seconds from a FA-251 beacon with a 75-watt quartz halogen lamp, visible for 16 nautical miles.
The first light on Pilot Hill was a kerosene lamp in a small wooden hut built in 1866; its mast is kept at the Story House Museum in Yamba. In 1878 tenders were called for a permanent tower, one of five similar lighthouses designed by James Barnet in 1878–80. W. Kinnear built it for £1,097, completing it in 1880. Automated and demanned in 1920, it was obscured by the Pacific Hotel in 1934 and replaced by the 1955 concrete tower; the old one was demolished in 1956.
The replica of the 1880 lighthouse, built by local volunteers after government funding fell through, now houses Yamba Community Radio Station 2TLC. In 2011 the station's building received a lantern and a 19th-century Fresnel lens donated by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority.
The grounds on Pilot Hill in Wooli Park are open and accessible to the public, with parking available close by. The tower itself is closed, so the light and its lantern can only be seen from outside. The site is managed by the New South Wales Department of Lands while the Australian Maritime Safety Authority operates the light.
The mast from the 1866 wooden hut lighthouse is on display at the Story House Museum in Yamba. That first structure was a small timber hut with a large kerosene lamp set on a bench, replaced by the 1880 tower.
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