The independent Commonwealth of Australia occupies the entire Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. British exploration and settling of the continent began late in the 1700s, with the first colony established in the Sydney area in 1788. By the 1850s there were six British colonies, including New South Wales and Queensland in the east, Victoria and South Australia in the south, Western Australia in the west, and Tasmania off the south coast. The Commonwealth was formed on New Years Day 1901 as a federation of the six colonies. Australia is both the smallest continent and the sixth-largest country in the world, with a population of about 26 million. Australia's Northern Territory occupies the north central part of the country with a tropical coastline facing the Timor Sea to the northwest, the Arafura Sea to the north, and the Gulf of Carpentaria to the east. Except for the port and naval base of Darwin the coast is thinly populated and difficult to reach. The territory has five more or less traditional lighthouses, all associated with the approaches to Darwin. Unfortunately, all the lighthouses are either closed to the public or difficult to reach, so they are not very well known. The lighthouses are managed by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) or by the Darwin Port Corporation. ARLHS numbers are from the ARLHS World List of Lights. Admiralty numbers are from volume Q of the Admiralty List of Lights & Fog Signals. U.S. NGA numbers are from Publication 111.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
![]() Cape Wessel Light, East Arnhem Australian Maritime Safety Authority photo |
Information available on lost lighthouses:
Notable faux lighthouses:
Adjoining pages: East: Far North Queensland | West: North Western Australia
Return to the Lighthouse Directory index | Ratings key
Posted June 25, 2004; checked and revised April 2, 2025. Lighthouses: 16. Site copyright 2025 Russ Rowlett and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.