| Actual Image
Vlaming Head (194)
ribeiroantonio
![Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 4219 W: 376 N: 5020]](http://i1.trekearth.com/misc/g-g-g.gif) (16294) | Today’s picture was taken in Cape Range Peninsula, Exmouth, Western Australia.
In WS is the B&W version and I would like to know which one you do prefer.
The Vlaming Head Lighthouse, located 14km north of Exmouth, was built in 1912 as a direct result of the wrecking in 1907 of the cattle ship SS Mildura which struck the coral reef off the coast of North West Cape. All the SS Mildura crew members were rescued but the 481 Kimberley cattle were left to die.
Because of this disaster and the subsequent public outcry, the Harbour and Lights Department was forced to reassess the site and the decision to build a lighthouse at Vlaming Head was made. The lighthouse was completed in 1912 and the light started for the first time on the 10 December of that year.
Vlaming Head was physically very isolated and difficult to reach. At the time of its construction, the nearest port was some 200 miles away and the closest beach for landing supplies was over 3 miles from the proposed site. Provision of fresh water for the labourers and later the lighthouse keepers, was a major obstacle that needed to be overcome. Supplies during construction were shipped from Fremantle, sent to Ashburton by steamer and back to North West Cape by schooner, where they were landed on the beach. To solve the problem of getting supplies from the beach to the lighthouse a small horse drawn tramway was built. Water for the labourers was later provided by a salt water condenser, but the water quality was not good. Large underground tanks were then built for the lighthouse keepers and their families, drawing on the artesian water in the area, but the condenser remained in the event of an emergency.
The lighthouse is a rendered concrete base structure with a steel domed prefabricated lighthouse lantern on top. The walls were found to be of shuttered stone walling with a mortar infill. The sedimentary capstone was used as this is a hard and locally obtained rock. The exterior and interior of the lighthouse were then rendered or plastered.
The Vlaming Head Light featured an illuminant, 85mm vapourised kerosene, dioptric light (63,000 to 200,000 CP). The light flashed in a group of two at 3/10ths of a second every 7.5 seconds. The light was made in Birmingham (UK). When first established the lighthouse was equipped with a small Morse lantern for signalling, but was eventually equipped with a wireless.
In 1942 the US Government built a the nearby Naval Communications Very Low Frequency Center and when in 1969 a light was mounted on its tower 11 the Vlaming Head Lighthouse ceased to function.
Finally, the first known European contact with the site was in 1618 when the Cape was sighted by the Zeewolf and later in that same year when Captain L Jacobs of the Mauritius made the first landing. Two hundred years later the French named the peninsula Cape Murat and in 1818 Captain Philip King successfully rounded the Cape, naming the associated gulf as Exmouth Gulf.
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