A wonderful and productive outing in Vaucluse photographing three lighthouses, a signal station and an historical building.
Macquarie Lighthouse
Macquarie Lighthouse is one of my favourite lighthouses in Sydney, so it was lovely to photograph it again. It is an impressive and elegant structure, made all the more striking by its dramatic setting near the sandstone cliffs of South Head.
South Head Signal Station
Vaucluse Bay Front Leading Light
This was my main reason for coming to Vaucluse this time. It's a light I'd never seen or photographed before. Getting a view of it proved challenging as its not on Google Maps and there is no direct access to it without being the owner of a multimillion property adjacent to it. I ended up seeing and photographing it from the beautiful Bottle and Glass Point. I'll have to come back here with my Canon R5 and 600 mm lens to get closer photos of it.
The Vaucluse Bay Front Leading Light is one of Sydney Harbour’s smaller and more easily overlooked maritime landmarks. First established in the 1880s, the present 7.9-metre concrete tower dates from 1910 and has a distinctive turreted appearance sometimes described as the “Disney Castle” style. It works with the matching rear light, positioned 945 metres farther up the hillside: when the two red lights appear vertically aligned, they guide vessels safely along Sydney Harbour’s Eastern Channel. Still active today, the front light stands on private land near the entrance to Vaucluse Bay.
Bottle and Glass Point (with views of Western Channel Pile Light)
I was both surprised and delighted to discover that there were views of another light from Bottle and Glass Point that I did not know about. The Western Channel Pile Light, affectionately known as the “West Wedding Cake” because of its tiered shape, stands off Georges Head on the northern side of Sydney Harbour. Built in 1924 to match the Eastern Channel Pile Light, it marks the western edge of the treacherous Sow and Pigs Reef and helps vessels navigate the safe channel between the two beacons. Originally gas-powered and later converted to solar energy, the lighthouse dramatically collapsed into the harbour in December 2006 after its supporting piles failed. It was carefully reconstructed using the restored original lantern, returning to operation in December 2008 and once again forming one of the harbour’s most distinctive maritime landmarks.
Shark Beach
Greycliffe House
Overlooking Shark Beach in Nielsen Park, Greycliffe House is one of Sydney’s finest surviving Victorian Gothic Revival residences. The picturesque sandstone villa was designed by architect John Frederick Hilly and completed in 1851 for pastoralist John Reeve and his wife, Fanny, a daughter of explorer William Charles Wentworth. After being badly damaged by fire in 1897, it was largely rebuilt in its original style; from 1914 it began a very different chapter as the Lady Edeline Hospital for Babies and later the Tresillian Mothercraft Training School. Today it forms part of Sydney Harbour National Park, its steep gabled roofs, sweeping lawns and magnificent harbour setting preserving the atmosphere of a nineteenth-century marine estate.
