Sunsets over the old Cape St George lighthouse.
This sandstone lighthouse was destroyed and lays in ruins now with only a few of the other sandstone buildings still standing. It was destroyed around 1920 after it was deemed to be poorly located and an actual hazard to the ships it was built to protect.
The first time I visited this lighthouse I was overwhelmed by fear, that said it was 2am on a cold winter morning and I was by myself in the national park. However the place really weirded me out even after visiting a few times, I think it was on my 4th visit I actually decided to read some of the sign around the place and discovered that there had been a lot of deaths and miss-happenings at the site when it was in operation.
In 1867, Isabella Jane Lee, the daughter of the principal light keeper from 1863 to 1873, died of typhus fever.
In 1882, another resident, 13-year-old George Gibson, died from pleurisy.
Typhoid struck again in 1885, killing Florence Bailey, the 11-year-old daughter of the third assistant lightkeeper. Her father, Edward Bailey, supplemented his income by fishing for sharks on the rocks below the lighthouse. In 1895, he was washed from the rocks. Entangled in his lines in heavy seas, he was taken by sharks as his son watched in horror.
Francis Henry Hammer, the son of Mary Hammer (a single woman who lived at the lighthouse) had a habit of pushing large rocks over the cliff edge to amuse himself. He either toppled over or lost his footing when part of the cliff collapsed. He was only nine or ten years old.
William Markham, the assistant lightkeeper from about 1878-1883, was kicked in the head by a horse and died before he reached Nowra Hospital.
In 1887, Kate Gibson (the principal lightkeeper’s teenage daughter), tripped while skylarking with a loaded firearm. The gun discharged, striking her friend Harriet Parker (the assistant lightkeeper’s daughter) in the back of the skull, killing her instantly. Her gravesite can be found in the Green Patch camping area.
Creepy huh!
Despite the deaths the lighthouse is a beautiful spot to visit and is high up on a sea cliff that over looks the ocean and it is a great spot for whale watching and you might even see a dolphin or some massive schools of fish swimming by too!
So the photo!
This is a panorama of 10 portrait photos stitched together using Photoshop.
Canon 5D MkIV
Lens - Rokinon 14mm f2.8
f/16 0.8secs ISO50
Hope you enjoy it!
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Info for the deaths was taken from (https://parksaustralia.gov.au/booderee/do/lighthouse/)
Awesome picture and photoshop work!
Wow that's amazing that so much tragedy has converged on that one small point, it's a bit like the Bermuda triangle in a weird intangible way. I wonder if the place had any aboriginal significance and if they thought of it as cursed or to be inhabited by bad spirits or anything similar.
Thanks very much @khufu. I haven't found any information suggesting anything like that but it would not surprise me. There is an Aboriginal community at Wreck Bay within Booderee National Park and the whole area is very important to them.
I actually had another creepy experience in the National Park one night after being out shooting sunset. I had ridden out to one of the secluded headlands on my mountain bike and left it quite late to ride back as I only had an average head torch on me and it was already dark. Anyway long story short I was riding passed one of the other paths that lead off the one I was on and as I looked down it I swear I saw this dark ghostly figure, needless to say I kept riding eyes straight ahead and pins and needles ran up my spine. Proper spooked me!
So i'm certain there is a lot of Indigenous history in the park other than what is obvious, I've really wanted to have a chat with some of the elders of the community and see what they know but I haven't ran into any so far.
@kunschj thought you would find this interesting also and thanks so much for the tip! and your kind words!
The picture alone was amazing, but the history and your spooky experience really fascinate me.
Spectacular work! And a creepy story. I'm wondering the same thing as @khufu. !tipuvote
Creepy places always make for the best stories.
Thank you for sharing. Very amusing!
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