Fitzroy Island Light, Navigational lighthouse on Fitzroy Island, Australia.
Fitzroy Island Light is an octagonal concrete tower covered with tiles and topped by a lantern and gallery, built in 1973 as the fifth of seven concrete towers erected in Queensland between 1964 and 1979. It stands on Fitzroy Island, 29 kilometres southeast of Cairns, and has been inactive since 1992. The site also holds preserved lighthouse keeper cottages and auxiliary buildings.
A light station was first set up on nearby Little Fitzroy Island in 1929 to warn ships in the Grafton Passage of surrounding reefs. Fitzroy Island gained its own light in 1943, during World War II, to supplement it. The present concrete tower, the fifth of seven built in Queensland between 1964 and 1979, dates from 1973; it was deactivated in 1992, when Little Fitzroy Island Light was rebuilt and reactivated.
The 1943 light showed different signals by direction: four flashes every 16 seconds at 217°, Morse "D" to the north and "U" to the south, using two synchronised bullseye lens panels from the Cape Northumberland first-order lens. The lamp from the last lighthouse is displayed at the Cairns Historical Society Museum.
Fitzroy Island is reached by ferry from Cairns; from the ferry landing the lighthouse is a 3.6 km hike. The site is open, but the tower itself is closed to the public. It is managed by the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service as part of Fitzroy Island National Park.
The 1943 light used two synchronised rotating bullseye lens panels taken from the first-order lens of Cape Northumberland Lighthouse. Its characteristic changed with direction: four flashes every 16 seconds on 217°, Morse "D" to the north and "U" to the south. The present tower's lamp is displayed at the Cairns Historical Society Museum.
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