16-460: The Tasman Island Lighthouse is on Tasman Island off the coast of southeastern Tasmania , Australia . It was one of the most isolated lighthouses in Australia. It was first lit on 2 April 1906, automated in 1976 and demanned in 1977. Solar conversion occurred in 1991. Various light sources have been fitted to the lighthouse since low voltage solar was installed in 1991. The current light source
32-469: A breeding species), short-tailed shearwater and sooty shearwater . The swamp harrier has also bred on the island. The breeding seabirds were preyed on by a feral cat population estimated at 50, feeding mainly on fairy prions and taking about 50,000 birds annually. The cats were eradicated by a baiting, trapping and hunting program carried out in May 2010. Australian and New Zealand fur seals use
48-518: Is a Vega VRB25. It has a character of Flashing 7.5x - Flash 0.1s - Eclipse 7.4s and produces 63,000 candelas with a geographical range of 39 nautical miles and a nominal range of 18 nautical miles. At a special meeting of the Hobart Marine Board on 6 April 1904, it was announced that a lighthouse was to be built on Tasman Island. The successful tenderer was Henrikson & Knutson for a price of £10,487 10s with an undertaking to complete
64-420: Is a dioecious or monoecious shrub that typically grows to a height of 1–2 m (3 ft 3 in – 6 ft 7 in), or sometimes a small tree to 14 m (46 ft), and has smooth bark. Its branchlets are spreading to more or less erect, up to 170 mm (7 in) long, the leaves reduced to erect, scale-like teeth 1.1–3 mm (0.04–0.1 in) long, arranged in whorls of seven to ten around
80-469: Is a species of flowering plant in the family Casuarinaceae and is endemic to a small area in far south-eastern Tasmania. It is a low shrub to small tree that is monoecious or dioecious , with spreading to erect branchlets up to 170 mm (6.7 in) long, the leaves reduced to scales in whorls of seven to ten, the fruiting cones 15–34 mm (0.6–1 in) long containing winged seeds (samaras) 5–8 mm (0.2–0.3 in) long. Allocasuarina crassa
96-602: Is restricted to the Cape Pillar area of the Tasman Peninsula and Tasman Island , both of which are in the Tasman National Park where there are about 100,000 mature individuals. It has a linear extent of distribution of 10 km (6.2 mi) with an area of about 20 km (7.7 sq mi). It grows on dolerite soils in both wet eucalypt forest and in coastal heath and shrubland. On
112-542: Is the rare Cape Pillar Sheoak ( Allocasuarina crassa ). Tasman Island is a very important breeding site for fairy prions , with an estimated 300,000-700,000 pairs, making it the largest such colony in Tasmania, and possibly in Australia. It has been identified as an Important Bird Area (IBA) by BirdLife International because it supports over 1% of the world population of the species. Other recorded breeding seabird species are little penguin (now extinct there as
128-686: The Tasman Island Lighthouse and weather station , which has been automated since 1976 and unstaffed since 1977. The island was once thickly forested. The forest has largely disappeared as a result of cutting the trees for firewood and of intense fires . When the lighthouse was staffed the keepers kept livestock , including cattle , sheep and draught horses , and maintained grassland for their grazing. Areas of grassland remain along with other vegetation communities of heathy scrub , regenerating scrub, sheoak woodland , sedgeland and coastal mosaic. An important plant present
144-714: The National Estate . The original first-order Fresnel lens by Chance Brothers can be seen on display at the Australian National Maritime Museum in Sydney , the original lantern is on loan to the Friends of Tasman Island and currently in storage in Hobart . Either annually or biennially the lighthouse and island are open for public access via helicopter tours. These trips are organised by
160-658: The Rotary Club of the Tasman Peninsula. Tasman Island lighthouse and surrounding land is owned by the Tasmanian State government. The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) lease the lighthouse and land from the Tasmania Parks & Wildlife Service. The AMSA lease consists of one parcel of land totaling 2456m2. Within this lease are the lighthouse, solar array and helipad. The current lease
176-544: The branchlets. The sections of branchlet between the leaf whorls (the "articles" ) are 10–20 mm (0.4–0.8 in) long and 1.2–2.0 mm (0.05–0.08 in) wide and the furrows along the branchlets are hairy. Male flowers are arranged in spikes about 20 mm (0.8 in) long, the anthers 0.8–1 mm (0.03–0.04 in) long. Female cones are cylindrical and sessile or on a peduncle up to 3 mm (0.1 in) long. Mature cones are 15–34 mm (0.6–1 in) long and 12–15 mm (0.5–0.6 in) in diameter,
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#1732798833671192-482: The rocky shore as a haul-out site, and the latter species has bred there in small numbers. Humpback whales pass through the surrounding waters. Reptiles recorded from the island include the metallic skink , White's skink , spotted skink and she-oak skink . A notable invertebrate , so far recorded only from Tasman Island, is the cricket Tasmanoplectron isolatum . Allocasuarina crassa Allocasuarina crassa , commonly known as Cape Pillar sheoak ,
208-494: The samaras black 5–8 mm (0.2–0.3 in) long. Allocasuarina crassa was first formally described in 1989 by Lawrie Johnson in the Flora of Australia from specimens collected by Tony Moscal at Cape Pillar in 1976. The specific epithet crassa means 'thick' or 'stout', referring to the thickness of the articles, compared to those of the related A. monolifera and A. zephyrea . Endemic to Tasmania, A. crassa
224-458: The south-eastern coast of Tasmania , Australia . The island is located in the Tasman Sea , situated off the Tasman Peninsula and is contained within the Tasman National Park . The island is a plateau surrounded by steep dolerite cliffs, with its highest point 300 metres (980 ft) above sea level (asl) and an average plateau height of 280 metres (920 ft) asl. It is the site of
240-574: The works in 18 months from the date of announcement being 18 August 1904. This company had previously built the Denison Canal near Dunalley. The components of the cast iron lighthouse were prefabricated in England and hauled piece by piece up the 250-metre-high cliffs before assembly. The island is now part of the Tasman National Park . The lighthouse and associated structures, such as the keepers’ cottages, are listed on Australia's Register of
256-470: Was signed on 1 May 1998 for a period of 25 years. This lease has an option for extension for a further 25 years. This Australian lighthouse -related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Tasman Island The Tasman Island , part of the Tasman Island Group , is an oval island with an area of 1.2 square kilometres (0.46 sq mi), lying close to
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