Flashback: Mackay lighthouse’s eerie history

Its colourful history includes a drowning crew, a rumoured ghost and numerous medical emergencies.

The lighthouse which now resides at the Mackay Marina was originally at Pine Island with this photograph taken in 1931. Picture: John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland.

FOR 100 years, the Pine Islet lighthouse at 200 feet above sea level shone an angry red warning light over rocks in the Percy Islands’ Broadsound Channel.

Located 65 nautical miles southeast of Mackay, the kerosene-powered lighthouse became operational in July, 1885.

Lighthouses of Australia say the original lighthouse oil burner lamp was fuelled by whale or vegetable oil. This photograph is of the lighthouse on Pine Island in 1931. Picture: John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland.

Its history tells of heroic deeds such as Harry Lockhart, a lighthouse keeper who reportedly swam into shark-infested waters during a cyclone in 1899 to save a drowning crew; the rumoured ghost of a lightkeeper’s wife who would knock on the lighthouse’s door; and many instances of life-threatening emergencies.

“In 1947, a doctor performed an emergency operation on Mrs Bradley, the wife of the acting head lighthouse keeper, using instruments sterilised in cooking pots on the kitchen stove,” Queensland State Library’s Myles Sinnamon said.

Months later, the Courier Mail reported Mr Bradley was rushed to hospital for emergency surgery.

And 17 months after that, the couple’s 10-month old baby also became seriously ill.

In 1985, the lighthouse became redundant when it was replaced by a solar-powered light, said Lighthouses of Australia.

The lighthouse from Pine Islet now rests at the Mackay Marina. Picture: williwonker (Flickr)

The group said locals rallied for it to be reassembled in Mackay in 1995, becoming “the last operational kerosene powered light in the world”.

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