Wednesday, January 2, 2008

Nobbys Lighthouse 150th Birthday


Nobbys Light turned 150 years old midnight 31st December 1857 -2007:

An important group of caring citizens celebrated this occasion today at Nobbys.

Newcastle took the lead in 1804 with the first navigational light on the Australian coast. It was a coal fired beacon on Signal Hill fuelled by coal from the convict worked mines at Colliers Point, the birth site of the city of Newcastle.

At midnight on the 31 of December 1857 the coal fired beacon was extinguished and the Nobbys Lighthouse was brought into operation.

The Nobbys Light has operated continuously for 150 years today never missing a night as a steadfast beacon at the entrance to the Port of Newcastle in fair and stormy weather always guiding shipping in one of the busiest ports of Australia.

Newcastle people who know of the national significance of this unique Commonwealth Heritage Place are appalled at the proposal to alienate this important navigational beacon with private commercial development and insist that it be protected and allowed to stand free as a sentinel at the entrance to the Port of Newcastle as it has done for 150 years.

Any development of Newcastle’s iconic headland and signal station cottages should be by adaptive reuse rather than by new buildings impacting on and impairing the 150 year old Nobbys Lighthouse.

View the slideshow

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