AMSA Participates in Gabo Island Lighthouse Anniversary Celebration

n Friday 30 November AMSA was involved in a ceremony to mark the 150th Anniversary of the Gabo Island lighthouse.

Mick Kinley, AMSA’s Acting Chief Executive Officer, spoke to the gathered crowd for the official event which was held alongside the light. Mick and Tim Bull, Member for East Gippsland, unveiled a plaque to commemorate the event.

Associated events in Mallacoota over the weekend included an art display, children’s story telling, poems and plays. Lyndon O’Grady, AMSA’s Senior Technical Officer, worked closely with Parks Victoria and the local community on the organisation of the celebrations. AMSA produced a commemorative brochure with assistance from Parks Victoria and also provided cardboard models of the lighthouse for school children in the area.

The lighthouse is located 13 kilometres from the town of Mallacoota near the border of Victoria and New South Wales. The lighthouse is the second tallest in Australia (after Cape Wickham on King Island) and has been in continual operation since 1862. The wreck of the Monumental City in 1853 (with the loss of 37 lives) was the catalyst for building the light.

Visitor numbers to these AMSA-controlled lighthouses has now topped 200,000 per annum. Twenty full time staff positions have been created for local guides at these lighthouses. The collective benefits to regional communities are therefore considerable. The tours are generally operated by state agencies or local organisations under licence from AMSA. These sites are part of the network of approximately 400 aids to navigation sites managed by AMSA’s Aids to Navigation team.

Source: http://www.amsa.gov.au/about_amsa/Corporate_information/Recent_Events/2012/Dec-Gabo.asp