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| Suburb: | Queenscliff |
Commencing operations in 1843, the original sandstone lighthouse at Shortland’s Bluff served as the primary means of navigation into Port Phillip Bay until 1854 when a secondary, red and black painted timber tower (having since been relocated to Point Lonsdale) was erected near the former in order to best demonstrate an alignment of approach for incoming vessels.
Necessitated by the development of the Queenscliff Battery and structural erosion of the sandstone lighthouse, two new lighthouses were constructed of bluestone and come to represent the two we see today: an upper “black” lighthouse completed in 1863 and a lower white-washed lighthouse.
Both lighthouses make an invaluable contribution to the navigational safety of the waters, however perilous they may be. A first hand account by Charles Dod in 1883 simultaneously recounts the vulnerability of seafaring vessels and the spectacle of a shipwreck in the grounding of the George Roper upon Lonsdale Reef:
‘For days a heavy gale set in and huge pieces of the ship’s hull were broken away. The holds became exposed and the cargo floated out and was drifting all over the bay. Barrels of whisky and other liquors were ‘bobbing’ up and down in the channels … It was a poor house in Quenscliff those days that could not show a few bottles of good whisky!’ (Henry Charles Dod, Queenscliff Early Day, McHardy’s Publications, 1978).
At present, Shortland’s Bluff public reserve is bisected by a large asphalted car park and appears to have somewhat limited investment in place making aside from some exposed timber bench seating. With the introduction of automated lighthouses, the lighthouse keepers residence has since been removed.
(Lovell Chen Architects. ‘Individual Property Citation’, Queenscliffe Heritage Study, 2009).
‘Point Nepean, Shortland's Bluff, Queenscliff [lighthouse], Point Lonsdale’, George Alexander Gilbert, drawing, ca. 1854 (Image courtesy of the State Library Victoria).
The Upper ‘Black’ Lighthouse and Signal Station, Shortland’s Bluff, 1890. (Image courtesy of the Queenscliffe Historical Museum).
View from the Upper ‘Black’ Lighthouse: the obelisk, Lower ‘White’ Lighthouse and Lighthouse Keepers Residence, Freg Kruger 1880. (Image courtesy of the State Library Victoria).
‘Wreck at Port Phillip Heads from Point Lonsdale, George Roper’, Fred Kruger, 1883. (Image courtesy of the State Library Victoria).
The lighthouses, Shortland Bluff from the sea. (Image courtesy of the Queenscliffe Historical Museum).
Shortland’s Bluff public reserve dominated by car parking with the Lower Lighthouse in the background, left. 2015 (copyright of the Nepean Conservation Group).
