Point Lonsdale lighthouse

The Point Lonsdale lighthouse is a vital component of Ports Victoria’s Vessel Traffic Service (VTS) that enables safe navigation in Port Phillip Bay.

While the building is heritage-listed the signal station it houses uses state-of-the-art navigational safety technology.

More than 3000 commercial ships enter the bay through the Heads each year. These ships visit the ports of Melbourne and/or Geelong, taking Victoria’s products and produce to world markets and interstate and delivering goods from international and Australian ports.

Point Lonsdale lighthouse at the entrance to Port Phillip Bay

Tours of the lighthouse

The Queenscliffe Maritime Museum conducts public tours of the lighthouse.

For information about tours, please visit the Museum’s website.

The building

The lighthouse is made from concrete. It is 21 metres high, the light is 37 metres above sea level and the walls are two metres thick at the base and one metre thick at the top.

The light

In the lantern house at the top of the building, a dioptric lens concentrates the light and directs it into a horizontal beam. The light flashes twice every 15 seconds over white, red and green sectors, visible for 10 and 12 nautical miles.

Today, the light is provided by an array of high intensity light emitting diodes (LED). The LEDs are cutting-edge lighthouse light technology and enable the Point Lonsdale lighthouse to display a comprehensive array of highly reliable and accurate coloured sectors to help mariners safely navigate the Heads. They are designed to replace traditional lamps or lighthouse lights in classical lighthouse optics and bring savings in energy consumption and maintenance.

Historically, the light source has developed from a gas-powered lantern through various versions of incandescent electric globe to the current array of LEDs. 

The need for a lighthouse

Point Lonsdale lighthouse is the landfall light for ships approaching the Heads.

Seafarers regard the entrance to Port Phillip Bay as one of the most potentially hazardous stretches of water in the world because of the narrow and often turbulent entrance known as the Rip. Tidal streams in the Rip can be more than six knots.

History of lighthouses at Point Lonsdale

1852
Captain John Preston established a signal station to show the state of the tide at the Heads and to communicate with inward and outward shipping.

February 1863
A temporary light established in a low structure, visible for seven nautical miles – in operation until 1867.

December 1863
A wooden lighthouse, previously at Shortland Bluff, Queenscliff, moved to Point Lonsdale but the light (visible for 10 nautical miles) was not used until 1867.

1902
The present lighthouse replaced the wooden one.

1934
A 500 watt electric lamp with acetylene gas back up replaced the original vaporised kerosene lamp.

1950
An observation platform and signal station added to the base of the lighthouse.

1994
A 250 watt quartz iodine lamp with a four-position lamp changer was installed

2016
The current LED light source installed.