During the mid-nineteenth century new ports were being developed along Queensland’s north coast, including Mackay in 1860 and Bowen in 1864. To reach these ports ships had to navigate the dangerous waters inside the Great Barrier Reef. At this time Queensland had only one lighthouse – on Moreton Island – which was had been built by the New South Wales government in 1857. In 1864 a select committee of the Queensland Legislative Assembly recommended that four lighthouses be built: Cape Byron (on the northern New South Wales coast), Sandy Cape, Cape Capricorn and Bustard Head. The first – at Bustard Head – was completed in 1868. Many Queensland lighthouses were built by 1915 when the Commonwealth Government took responsibility for the function.

The National Archives holds records relating to the operation of Queensland lighthouses. Dating from 1854 these include drawings, logbooks and weather reports of individual lighthouses as well as central administration records. Records relating to lightships are also held. Most of these records are held in Brisbane. You can identify many of them by conducting searches for items using the RecordSearch database. Samples of the types of records held are listed below. Those series marked with an asterisk(*) include digital copies of records that can be viewed on RecordSearch.

A number of the series listed below contain material created less than 30 years ago. Note that access cannot be given to these records until they are more than 30 years old.

Records about Queensland lighthouses in the period before Federation are also held by Queensland State Archives. Contact details are available on Fact Sheet 2 – Addresses of other archival institutions.

Information about records on Tasmanian lighthouses held by the National Archives is included in Fact Sheet 122 – Lighthouse records held in Hobart.

You can obtain more information about the record series listed above (and the items within the series) fromRecordSearch, the Archives database. Follow the links in the series lists to go directly to information on that series. You can also use RecordSearch to find out about the agencies that created the records and to locate more records on your subject. You might also explore PhotoSearch to find out if there are photos pertaining to your subject.

RecordSearch and PhotoSearch are available online or in all Archives reading rooms. Reference staff are available in the reading rooms to help you, or email ref@naa.gov.au.