I photographed Point Perpendicular lighthouse on 11th July 1987.

Pt Perpendicular bulb and lens
11 July 1987
Arca Swiss Monorail 5×4″
150mm Linhof Schneider Technika Symmar
f16/22 15 seconds, Fujichrome 50
Low res scan from book

First, here are three images from the lantern room of the lighthouse, of the bulb and the fresnel lenses.

Pt Perpendicular bulb and lens
11 July 1987
Nikon FE,
16mm f3.5 fisheye,
Fujichrome 50

Pt Perpendicular bulb and lens
11 July 1987
Nikon FE,
16mm f3.5 fisheye,
Fujichrome 50

The lighthouse was first used in 1899 (though it bears the date of 1898).  It was the first in Australia to be built of concrete blocks, formed on site then lifted and cemented into place.

Pt Perpendicular lighthouse
11 July 1987
Arca Swiss Monorail 5×4″
90mm Linhof Schneider Angulon
f6.8 1 minute 40 seconds, Fujichrome 50
Low res scan from book

It replaced the Cape St George lighthouse, which we will see and discuss in the next post.

Pt Perpendicular lighthouse
11 July 1987
Arca Swiss Monorail 5×4″
90mm Linhof Schneider Angulon
f6.8 + Polariser, 1 minute, Fujichrome 50

The reason for the name is obvious if you go there.  It is on a point surrounded by seventy-metre vertical cliffs that plunge directly into the sea.  The lighthouse itself is twenty metres high.

Pt Perpendicular lighthouse
11 July 1987
Arca Swiss Monorail 5×4″
90mm Linhof Schneider Angulon
f11 1 minute, Fujichrome 50

The is one of the few lighthouses that were not isolated. The town of Nowra is about forty kilometres away and the village of Currarong about ten.  The keepers’ children would have attended a local school and there would always have been a road.  I think the walls surrounding the lighthouse cottages would be more for protection from the winds than for privacy.