Qualla: Caloundra Lighthouses

Caloundra Lighthouses: Introduction

Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Brian Yap (葉) from Marrickville, Australia, CC BY-SA 2.0. On 22 March 1999, a crane lifted Caloundra's old lighthouse onto the back of a truck, and the building came apart. The timber frame -- more than a century old, clad in corrugated iron -- gave way under the strain of being moved. For the people who had spent years lobbying to bring the town's oldest structure home, it was a sickening moment. The little tower had already survived being shipped off the hill three decades earlier and left to rot beside a boat club. Now, on the verge of rescue, it had nearly destroyed itself. They repaired it, tried again, and on 11 June 1999 the 1896 Caloundra Head Lighthouse finally stood once more on the exact patch of ground where it was built.

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Image: Brian Yap (葉) from Marrickville, Australia | CC BY-SA 2.0

Caloundra Lighthouses: A Light for the Channel

Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Chris Olszewski, CC BY-SA 3.0. When Queensland separated from New South Wales in 1859, the young colony had a single lighthouse to its name and a coastline that demanded many more. Caloundra Head got its light because of a discovery made in 1879, when the colony's portmaster sounded a new deep-water route -- t...

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Image: Chris Olszewski | CC BY-SA 3.0

Caloundra Lighthouses: The Keeper on the Hill

Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Damien Dempsey from Melbourne, Australia, CC BY 2.0. The first keeper arrived when the light was lit in September 1896, and his cottage quickly became the hub of a settlement. One room served as the local post and telegraph office; the steady traffic of residents collecting their mail wore a track along the ridge that eventually be...

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Image: Damien Dempsey from Melbourne, Australia | CC BY 2.0

Caloundra Lighthouses: Two Towers, Side by Side

Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Moondyne, CC BY-SA 3.0. By the 1960s, container ships were growing and the old light was ageing. In 1968 a second lighthouse went up beside the first -- a square reinforced-concrete tower carrying a glassed observation room, looking for all the world like an airport control tower. It combined lighthouse...

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Image: Moondyne | CC BY-SA 3.0

Caloundra Lighthouses: Outliving Their Purpose

Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit EmpireFootage, CC BY-SA 4.0. Neither light lasted as long as its builders hoped. The 1968 tower had a short working life: high-rise apartments soon rose along the coast and blocked its beam from the sea, and by 1978 a new light at Point Cartwright had taken over the channel. The signal station was de-staffed...

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Image: EmpireFootage | CC BY-SA 4.0