Mersey Bluff Lighthouse

I have always had a passion for lighthouses, ever since I read the Enid Blyton’s “Five go to Demon’s Rocks”. As a child, for the longest time, I had a thought that they were reasonably spacious inside, and that people could live in them. I suppose one could – but not without making some major modifications.

Most of the lighthouses that I have come across are typically white, placed atop cliffs, and for the most part, look just like the next one – so the one pictured above at Mersey Bluff in Devonport, Tasmania was a welcome change from the norm. It’s not quite like the Candy Cane lighthouse that is on the coast of Sydney Harbour, but similar in the sense that the vertical red stripes break up the otherwise stark whitewash that most lighthouses are painted. The Mersey Bluff lighthouse is not painted with red stripes all the way around, but only on one side – the side that faces out towards Bass Strait. Still in use today, it serves as a Beacon for incoming ocean vessels, including the Spirit of Tasmania that ferries people like myself from Melbourne to Tasmania.
Read less