Cape Otway

Infobox_lighthouse|name=Cape Otway Lightstation
location=Victoria, Australia

---

caption=
coordinates =
yearlit=1848
yeardeactivated=1994
automated=
intensity=White 1,000,000 cd; Red 4,000 cd
elevation=52 m
range=convert|26|nmi|km|0
foundation=
construction=Sandstone
shape=Conical
marking=White
height=20 m
lens=First order Fresnel

Cape Otway is a cape in south Victoria, Australia on the Great Ocean Road; much of the area is enclosed in the Otway National Park.

Cape Otway was originally inhabited by the Katabanut people; evidence of their campsites is contained in the middens throughout the region. The Cape was discovered by Europeans when Lieutenant James Grant surveyed the Victorian coast in the "Lady Nelson". The government reserved the tip of the cape as the site for a lighthouse. Access to the site was difficult, it was eventually reached overland and construction of the Cape Otway Lightstation began in 1846 from stone quarried at the Parker River.

The light was first lit in 1848 using a first order Fresnel lens;cite web|url=http://www.unc.edu/~rowlett/lighthouse/vic.htm|author=Rowlett, Russ|title=The Lighthouse Directory] it was the second lighthouse completed on mainland Australia and it remains the oldest surviving lighthouse in mainland Australia. [http://www.lighthouse.net.au/lights/VIC/Cape%20Otway/Cape%20Otway.htm#History The Cape Otway Lighthouse] ] [ [http://www.lightstation.com/ Cape Otway Lightstation] ] A telegraph station was added to the site when Tasmania was connected to the mainland by a submarine telegraph line from Cape Otway to Launceston in 1859. Parts of the Cape were also open to free settlers.

Eight ships were wrecked along the coast of Cape Otway. [Australia's Great Ocean Road. [http://www.greatoceanrd.org.au/highlights/shipwrecks/shipwrecks.asp Shipwrecks] ] These inclused the "Marie" (1851), "Sacramento" (1853), "Shomberg" (1856), "Loch Ard" (1878), "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. Following this, the Americans built a radar bunker on the cape in 1942; it is now open to the public.

The lightstation was decommissioned in January 1994 after being the longest continuous operating light on the Australian mainland. It has been replaced by a low powered solar light in front of the original tower whose focal plane is at 73 m above sea level. Its light characteristic is three white flashes every 18 seconds.cite web|url=http://www.unc.edu/~rowlett/lighthouse/vic.htm|author=Rowlett, Russ|title=The Lighthouse Directory]

References