AUSTRALIA—BASS STRAIT.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XVII, Issue 962, 29 January 1862, Page 4

AUSTRALIA—BASS STRAIT.

FIXED LIGHT ON CAPE "WICKHAM. The Marine Board at Hobarfc Town, Tasmania, lias given notice that on and after the Ist day of November, 1861, a light will be exhibited from the lighthouse Recently erected on the hill near Cape Wickham, at the north end of King island, in Bass Strait, south coast of Australia.

The light will be-a. fixed white light, and will be visible from the deck of a vessel when bearing from M.EJE., round by the east, to W.N.W. It is placed at an elevation of 280 feet above the mean level of the sea, and should be seen in clear wather from a distance of 24 miles.'

The illuminating apparatus is catadioptric or by lenses, of the first order.

The lighthouse is a circular stone tower, 145 feet liigh, and painted white. Erom itthe west extreme of Harbinger reef bears. W. by N. £ N., distant 4£ miles, and the east extreme N.W. by W., 4 miles; Nayarino shoal N.E.;by N., 1\ miles; and south extreme of New Year islands S.W. \ S., 9 miles, and "north extreme S.W. \ W., i\ miles. The position of the lighthouse is about Jat, 39° 35' S., and long. 143° 57' east of Greenwich.

Caution.—The.attention of mariners is called to the following extract from the Report of the Lighthouse Commissioners appointed by the Governments of New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, and Tasmania:—" In advising the erection of a lighthouse on King island, the commissioners wish to guard themselves from affording'the public any reasonable supposition that this light can be at all considered in the position of a great highway light for the navigation of Bass Strait. The south coast of New Holland, at the western entrance of the Strait, being free from danger, affords in their .opinion the safest shore for the prudent mariner to approach, and they conceive that the light on King island is only to be regarded as a beacon for warning navigators of danger, rather than as a leading light • to a great thoroughfare."

The bearings are magnetic. Variation 8° 20' east in 1861. .

By command of their Lordships, John Washington, Hydrographer, Hydrographic Office, Admiralty, London, . October 24, 1861.

Thig notice affects the following Admiralty charts: ~Australia, general, No. 1042 ; Bass Strait, -No. J695 5 Australia, southern portion, 2759 ; Indian Ocean, eastern .sheet; No. 748 c; and Pacific Ocean, •heet _9, No. 2467; also, Australian Lights List for ■iß6l,'No. 118.