16-440: Cape Otway Lighthouse is a lighthouse on Cape Otway in southern Victoria , Australia . It is Victoria's oldest working lighthouse. During winter to spring, the lighthouse is a vantage point for land-based whale watching as migrating whales swim very close to shores. 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
32-503: A radar bunker on the cape in 1942 which 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 It has been replaced by a low powered solar light in front of the original tower whose focal plane is at 73 m above sea level.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. At
48-507: A rock shelter at Moonlight Head and was found to have been occupied between 1030 BP and 180 BP when excavated by archaeologist David Frankel . This was probably one of the places occupied by the Ngarowurd gundidj clan identified by George Augustus Robinson ’s Gadubanud informants. The find extended the known period of Aboriginal presence on this part of the Otway coast. This article about
64-456: A sea cave and a massive active landslip, which extends inland for 500 metres. As a consequence amethyst stones, which give the place its name, can be found on the pebbly beach. This stretch of the coast is renowned for its shipwrecks , with the ship, Fiji wrecked just off the head in 1891 and the Marie Gabrielle wrecked on 25 November 1869. An Aboriginal shell midden was excavated in
80-963: Is enclosed in the Great Otway National Park . The cape marks the boundary between the Southern Ocean on the west and Bass Strait on the east. Cape Otway was originally inhabited by the Gadubanud people; evidence of their campsites is contained in the middens throughout the region. The traditional Gadubanud name for the cape is Bangurac . The cape was charted by the British when Lieutenant James Grant sailed through Bass Strait in HMS ; Lady Nelson in December 1800. Grant named it Cape Albany Otway after Captain William Albany Otway. This
96-658: The Marie (1851), Sacramento (1853), Schomberg (1855), 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 in 1940, which sank less than 24 hours after the British Ship S.S. Cambridge off Wilsons Promontory. The Americans built
112-452: The Southern Ocean . It is believed to be the headland seen by Matthew Flinders from the Investigator during a break in showery weather, on the night of 20 April 1802. It is notable for the vertical cliffs up to 50 metres high, which in some places overhang, and expose geological structures such as cross bedding , scour and fill channels and variable sizes of concretions. There is also
128-525: 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 ; it was the second lighthouse completed on mainland Australia and it remains the oldest surviving lighthouse in mainland Australia. It was decommissioned in January 1994 after being the longest continuous operating light on the Australian mainland. At
144-399: The Cape in 1843, with several survivors making a difficult journey by foot along the coast back toward Geelong. Mr Kearnon attempted to establish a livestock property at Moonlight Head in 1845 but his hut was burnt down and his shepherd supposedly killed by the resident Gadubanud people. More detailed exploration occurred in 1846 when a number of surveying expeditions entered the area with
160-520: The base of the lighthouse, there is a plaque remembering to one of the most mysterious UFO-sightings, the disappearance of Frederick Valentich on October 21, 1978, who had his last radio contact to Cape Otway Lighthouse. [1] Cape Otway Cape Otway is a cape and a bounded locality of the Colac Otway Shire in southern Victoria , Australia on the Great Ocean Road ; much of the area
176-412: The keeper's cottages of Apollo Bay , accommodation is available in two double studios or in the head keeper's cottage that will sleep groups ranging from two to sixteen people. 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. Eight ships were wrecked along the coast of Cape Otway. These included
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#1732852347747192-660: The remaining Gadubanud population of around ten people. Cape Otway Lighthouse was built on the point of the cape in 1848. The lighthouse is listed on the Victorian Heritage Register . A telegraph office opened in 1859. The post office opened on 1 September 1880 and closed in 1972. Eight ships were wrecked along the coast of Cape Otway: Marie (1851), Sacramento (1853), Schomberg (1855), Loch Ard (1878), Joseph H. Scammell (May 1891), Fiji (September 1891), and Casino in 1932. The first American vessel sunk during World War II , MS City of Rayville ,
208-410: The shoreline beneath the lighthouse. Commercial crayfishers use baited pots or traps throughout the reef system, with white floats on the surface marking their locations. Cape Otway has an oceanic climate ( Cfb ) with mild summers and cool damp winters, and only 38 clear days annually. Moonlight Head Moonlight Head is a locality located on the Great Ocean Road in southwest of Victoria on
224-529: The view of placing a lighthouse upon Cape Otway. During these assignments, an Aboriginal man was attacked by colonists with stockwhips, while a surveyor's assistant by the name of James Conroy was killed by the Gadubanud. A reprisal force led by the surveyor and consisting of a well-armed militia of Barrabool men was organised by the district official Captain Foster Fyans . This force exterminated almost completely
240-515: 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 hostile seas, where the Southern Ocean meets with Bass Strait, that surround Cape Otway are home to some of the world's most prized marine species, including crayfish and abalone . On calm days, as many as 20 abalone dive boats commonly operate along
256-510: Was later shortened to Cape Otway. The British started to colonise the region in 1837 when Joseph Gellibrand and George Hesse became lost in the Otways on an expedition. It was found that Hesse probably died of exposure, while Gellibrand was initially cared for by a local Aboriginal clan but later killed by members of another clan visiting from the Apollo Bay area. The ship Joanna was wrecked near
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