Creal Reef Light

Creal Reef Light

The light is the tower on the left
Queensland
Location Mackay
Queensland
Australia
Coordinates 20°32′02.3″S 150°22′49.84″E / 20.533972°S 150.3805111°E / -20.533972; 150.3805111Coordinates: 20°32′02.3″S 150°22′49.84″E / 20.533972°S 150.3805111°E / -20.533972; 150.3805111
Year first constructed 1985
Foundation reinforced concrete on four piles
Construction stainless steel skeletal tower
Tower shape square pyramidal tower with balcony and lantern
Markings / pattern white tower with an orange square daymark in the upper half
Height 34.5 metres (113 ft)
Focal height 32 metres (105 ft)
Current lens VRB-25
Light source solar power
Intensity 104,000 cd
Characteristic Fl W 7.5s
Racon M
Admiralty number K3052
NGA number 111-10229
Managing agent Australian Maritime Safety Authority

Creal Reef Light is an active lighthouse located at Creal Reef, a planar reef about 150 kilometres (93 mi) east of Mackay, Queensland, Australia. It guides ships outgoing from Mackay into Hydrographers Passage, a deep water channel east of Mackay.[1] The structure is a stainless steel tower, which also serves as a daymark and carries a racon.

Creal Reef

the weather station on Creal Reef

Creal Reef is a middle shelf planar reef with an area of 1.6 square kilometres (0.62 sq mi).[2] It was named in the late 1920s by Captain John A. Edgell (RN) on the survey ship HMAS Moresby, during the Moresby survey of the Cumberland Channel inside the Great Barrier Reef.[3] It was named after Denis A. J. Creal, a pilot with the No. 101 Flight RAAF who assisted the Moresby with her surveys.[4]

Structure and display

The structure, established in April 1985, is a 21 metres (69 ft) stainless steel skeletal tower with a white lantern, standing on a reinforced concrete hut, supported on four piles. The total height from the ground to the top platform is 34.5 metres (113 ft).[5] The light shares the location with an automatic weather station.[6]

The current light characteristic is a white flash every 7.5 seconds (Fl.W. 7.5s) visible for a distance of 19 nautical miles (35 km; 22 mi).[7] The apparatus is a solar powered VRB-25 rotating at 1.33 rpm. The light source is a 12 Volt 75 Watt Halogen lamp with an intensity of 104,000 cd.[5] The racon, mounted at an elevation of 34 metres (112 ft),[8] transmits a morse code "M" (- -) for a distance of 16 nautical miles (30 km; 18 mi).[9]

The daymark, displayed at 33 metres (108 ft) above MHWS, comprises two orange 3 by 7 metres (9.8 ft × 23.0 ft) slats on the northern and western faces.[5]

Site operation and visiting

The site and the tower are operated by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority.[5] The island is accessible only by boat, and both the site and the tower are closed to the public.[1]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Rowlett, Russ. "Lighthouses of Australia: Queensland's East Coast". The Lighthouse Directory. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Retrieved 2010-11-14.
  2. ↑ "AIMS Research - Reef Monitoring". data.aims.gov.au. Retrieved 22 February 2011.
  3. ↑ "HMAS Moresby (I)". Sea Power Centre Australia. Retrieved 15 September 2008.
  4. ↑ Ray Blackwood (1997). The Whitsunday Islands - An Historical Dictionary. p. 55. quoted in "Street Names of Mackay , Queensland, Australia". mackayhistory.org. Mackay Historical Society. 2010. Retrieved 22 February 2011.
  5. 1 2 3 4 "Creal Reef Light, QLD, AN424-01" (PDF). Aids to Navigation Schedule Issue 10. Australian Maritime Safety Authority. December 2006.
  6. ↑ Michael Pitcher (September–October 2006). "The Lighting of Hydrographers Passage – Part 2". Lighthouses of Australia Inc. Bulletin. 9 (5).
  7. ↑ List of Light. Note that AN424-1 lists visibility distance of 16 nautical miles (30 km; 18 mi), but the date is 2006.
  8. ↑ "Creal Reef Racon, QLD, AN424-04" (PDF). Aids to Navigation Schedule Issue 10. Australian Maritime Safety Authority. December 2006.
  9. ↑ List of Lights, Pub. 111, The West Coasts of North and South America (Excluding Continental U.S.A. and Hawaii), Australia, Tasmania, New Zealand, and the Islands of the North and South Pacific Oceans (PDF). List of Lights. United States National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. 2010. p. 203.
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