1987, Queensland, From Dusk Till Dawn
When I put up colour images in this Blog from the Bicentennial History of Australian Lighthouses From Dusk Till Dawn, I also intended to put up some monochrome versions. I recently realised I overlooked this and am doing so now.
Most of these images were taken with large format 5×4 cameras using Fujichrome 50 slide film (Velvia did not exist then). A few were taken with medium format cameras Mamiya 645 and 1937 Rolleiflex TLR. Some (which should be easy to identify were taken with a Nikon FE and a 16mm fisheye lens.
Click links for posts on lighthouses with more information and colour images.
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Booby Is – Low tide with rowing boat.
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Booby Island Aboriginal Cave Paintings.
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Booby Island at Dusk.
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Cape Moreton Lens & View.
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Cape Moreton View from top.
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Cape Moreton.
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Cherry Venture at night.
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Cherry Venture in Daytime.
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Double Island Point.
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Double Island Point. Waves and tower from northern point.
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Double Island Point. Interior of lighthouse.
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View from Fitzroy Is Lighthouse.
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Low Isles Beach.
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Low Isles.
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Sandy Cape (Fraser Island).
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Kerosene lamp.
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Sandy Cape Optic.
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Murray Foote 
WOW. A special one Murray. I got to experience similar to that lighthouse on San Salvador, Bahamas. Was totally amazed at what we would consider the bearing mechanism that allowed that huge lens structure. Did this one rotate?? I’ve never seen a kerosene lamp like that. Where would one find one?
As always…awesome images.
Regards,
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I don’t know whether there were bearings. The prisms sat on a bed of mercury. I met one lighthouse keeper who got mercury poisoning when the mercury spilled out during an earthquake and it didn’t look untidy so they just left it lying around.
The lighthouses were all lit by electric bulbs when I went around but obviously not in the nineteenth century. This was probably a lamp that originally provided the source for the light.
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Whooo, Cherry Venture at night is really spooky.
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Yes it’s like a Marie Celeste coming out at you over the sand.
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What an amazing project Murray, you certainly got to go to many places a normal person just would never hear about let alone see. It must have been quite an adventure.
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Also historic because four years later all the lighthouse keepers were all gone and I was probably the only official photographer ever sent round the manned Commonwealth lighthouses. Certainly a unique opportunity.
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Even more special than I thought! Do you know if anyones been to ALL the Australian maintained lighthouses – now that would keep one busy for years 🙂 I mean photographed not just been.
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Depends what you mean by a maintained lighthouse. there are several hundred Commonwealth lights so maybe a thousand or more State ones. I’ve never heard of a photographic survey. Some would be on offshore islands that are very difficult to access.
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I actually meant all lighthouses in Australian waters (knowing nothing about the logistics ). A person could spend a lifetime capturing them all, what an adventure if you could get funding to do it. Just my mind running away with me 🙂
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The other complication would be that some would be in wildlife sanctuaries, eg small islands covered in nesting birds. South Neptune Island in the Flinders Gulf would now be such a one. When I visited you had to be careful where you stepped and it wasn’t even peak nesting season.
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Ah, but how fascinating. If, only if 🙂 I was 2 years younger and had the money (as always is the case) I would be tempted to try and do it
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I meant 20 years not 2!!!!!!
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Maybe if you do a search for your birth certificate and closely inspect it you’ll find you are two years younger!
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Not likey! Nice thought though 🙂
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Onya mate, some good snaps. I’ve sailed up and down the coast a few times… seen all the lights, landed on most… they even tried to get me to work on Pine islet, then they dismantled it and put at the end of the breakwater at Mackay. Big changes are happening. I see things you cannot
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Thanks very much. That would be a great way to see them, in all kinds of light and weather too.
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The version in b&w of the Cherry Venture at night is outstanding. I’d much rather it over the orginal color version. Great work!
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Yes, you could be right. Thank you. Of course the original was a 5×4 colour slide in 1987 and I only made a mono conversion for this post, about a year ago. Perhaps I should print it.
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