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Booby Island Light is an active heritage-listed lighthouse located on Booby Island, near the tip of Cape York Peninsula, west of Prince of Wales Island, within the Endeavour Strait, Queensland, Australia. It marks the western entrance to the navigation channel through the Torres Strait. It was the last of the major lights to be constructed along the Queensland coast. ==History== The colony of Queensland was formed in 1859. In 1862, the Queensland government appointed the first Portmaster, Commander George Poynter Heath. During the following years, several committees were held, but none of them recommended the erection of a lighthouse on Booby Island. It was Heath who first recommended the construction of such a lighthouse, at the Intercolonial Conference of Marine Departments in 1873, where a first order light was finally recommended by the delegates. However, this recommendation was not followed through, and it was only in August 1885 that Heath referred to the lighthouse again, as trade through the Torres Strait increased, and a traffic channel west of the Prince of Wales Island was established. Formal approval took four more years, and tenders for the lighthouse were called in April 1899. The accepted tender of £3329 was by the brothers John and Jacob Rooney of Maryborough, which also constructed Sandy Cape Light, Cape Bowling Green Light, Cowan Cowan Point Light, Cape Capricorn Light and Lady Elliot Island Light. The light was first exhibited on 24 June 1890, and the total cost of construction was £6,500. Residences for the lighthouse keepers were also constructed in 1890. The original lens was a second order Chance Brothers Fresnel lens, with a focal radius of , mounted on a rotating pedestal with mercury bearings. The light source was an oil wick burner with an intensity of 20,000 cd. In 1917 the light source was upgraded to a vaporised kerosene mantle, with an intensity of 120,000 cd. In 1961 a radio beacon was installed. In 1963 the lighthouse was converted to electricity. The light source at that time was a 120 Volt 1,000 Watt tungsten-halogen lamp providing 1,000,000 cd and visible for . The light characteristic was one flash every four seconds (Fl.W. 4s). A tide gauge was installed in 1970. In November 1991 the power source was converted to solar power. The original lens and the pedestal were removed, the mercury drained, and the entire apparatus replaced with a modern rotating mechanism. The original apparatus now resides in the Thursday Island Museum. The battery banks were installed in the ground floor of the tower. The light characteristic was changed to the current, one white flash every ten seconds (Fl.W. 10s),〔 and it is visible for .〔''List of Lights''〕 The light was fully automated and demanned in 1992. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Booby Island Light」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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