Lighthouse at Corny Point on the Yorke Peninsula

This lighthouse was built in 1882 in response to a need to safeguard the entrance to Spencer Gulf and the approaches to the grain ports of western Yorke Peninsula. The height given for the tower varies depending on the sources consulted but is approximately 14 metres high and stands 30 metres above sea level. The tower is built of locally quarried limestone, and the strength of the structure was tested by an earthquake shortly after it was manned in 1882 and another in September 1902. Only minor damage occurred.

Two cottages were built for the keepers. These were equipped with large underground water storage tanks because of the lack of local water sources. When the last lightkeepers left in June 1920, the cottages and storerooms were sold and subsequently demolished.

The light was originally powered by mineral oil, then changed to acetylene in 1920 and automatic operation. Finally in 1978 the power was switched to mains electricity with battery backup. The Chance Brothers 2.7m lantern and 500mm lens were threatened with removal at this last changeover, but pressure from the National Trust in South Australia resulted in them being retained. The original light was a fixed white light with a range of 14 miles (22 kilometres); the light currently has a range of 35 kilometres and a red/white flash every 20 seconds.

Chance Brothers was the leading lighthouse lantern and lens manufacturer in the world; the company both produced the glass itself and then fabricated this into lenses. Complete lighthouse operating systems were produced at the glass works--lens, armature, lantern, burner and tower. When the company celebrated its centenary in 1951 it had 'supplied more than 2,400 lighthouse lenses and hundreds of complete lighthouse structures to nearly 80 countries'. (Chance p. 11)

A Remarkable point: Corny Point Lighthouse and Hundred of Carribie Corny Point, S. Aust.: Lighthouse Centenary Book Committee, 1991

Phillips, Valmai Romance of Australian lighthouses Adelaide: Rigby, 1977

Ibbotson, John, Lighthouses of Australia: images from the end of an era Surrey Hills, Vic.: Australian Lighthouse Traders, 2001

Chance, Toby Lighthouses: the race to illuminate the world London: New Holland, 2008

Lighthouses of South Australia: The Corny Point Lighthouse

Corny Point, Yorke Peninsula

Seaside Light: Corny Point (Yorke Peninsula)

Chance Brothers