Page 18 - 1977 NAB CalendarMaritime Life in early Australia Part One
P. 18
WILLIAM’S TOWN LIGHTHOUSE (VIC.)
AUGUST
The area in the foreground of this illustration is
To the right of the lighthouse is the signal station. One of the first duties of the
now known as Point Gellibrand. As early as 1835 it had been necessary signalman installed at Point Gellibrand had been to report on September 30,
to erect a navigational aid on this point and from August, 1840, a “plain 1839, the arrival of the ‘Pyramus’, carrying C. J. La Trobe, Superintendent of the
stationary light" was shown there. The lighthouse was built in 1852, and Port Phillip District, and later Governor of Victoria.
would have been the first Melbourne landmark seen by many of the
migrants coming to Melbourne during the gold rushes of the 1850’s. The ship in the left foreground is the prison hulk, ‘Success’. In 1852 this ship was
deserted by its crew who went off to the goldfields, and it was bought by the
Later it became known as Timeball Tower, because when the electrical government and used to accommodate prisoners. Some of the prisoners worked
telegraph between Melbourne and Williamstown came into operation in on quarrying and preparing the stone used in the lighthouse.
1854, the time ball that gave the one o’clock time signal each day was
placed on the lighthouse. Shipping in the bay adjusted chronometers by Edmund Thomas: see June note.
this signal. In 1932, radio time signals had made its use redundant.
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