Cape Jaffa Historic Lighthouse

Cape Jaffa Lighthouse is a decommissioned lighthouse formerly located on Margaret Brock Reef near Cape Jaffa on the south east coast of South Australia and whose tower has been located in the town of Kingston SE since 1976. The former lighthouse tower is owned by the National Trust of South Australia who operates it as a museum. The platform which supported the tower is still in place at Margaret Brock Reef as of 2014. The lighthouse took three years to build and was opened on 6 January 1872.[1] It was originally built 8 km out to sea from Cape Jaffa on the Margaret Brock Reef. One particular shipwreck, the SS Admella was cited at the time as the reason for commissioning the lighthouse.[2] Known as a Wells screw pile,[3] the original structure was held secure by being screwed into the ocean/reefs rocks. It was 41 metres high and was designed to suit the local conditions. In its original structure, the lighthouse had eight rooms, enough to accommodate two lighthouse keepers and their families with enough stores to last several weeks. The lighthouse used a Chance Brothers lantern which could be seen for a distance up to 40 km. The federal government installed an automatic light to the structure in the early 1970s and handed operation to the National Trust of South Australia. After almost 101 years of use, the lighthouse was deactivated on 1 April 1973 when a new lighthouse at Robe began operation. The Lighthouse has been listed on the South Australian Heritage Register since 24 July 1980.[4] see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cape_Jaffa_Lighthouse