Grotto Point Lighthouse
Grotto Point lighthouse April 1939. Bob Reid
The lighthouse at Grotto Point is one of the two leading lights into Sydney Harbour.
Early European settlers recognised the importance of the location. Lieutenant Bradley,
who carried out a survey of the northern part of the harbour early in 1788, wrote on the
evening of 28 January 1788: “We went to Grotto Point, moored the boats and made a
tent fore and aft the longboat, in which we all slept.” Grotto Point was one of only a
handful of local spots to be named on the maps produced following the survey, taking its
name from the fragile natural stone arch at the tip of the point, which was probably
destroyed by a storm soon after the arrival of the First Fleet.
James Larmer surveyed Joseph Hicks’ grant of 8ha on the western side of Grotto
Point in 1830, and William Yates was granted 8ha at Castle Rock nearby in 1836. The
point itself was granted by purchase in 1853 for £20 to William Clarke, who sold it to
George Allen in 1854 for £40. No use was ever made of the grant and eventually the
land was resumed by the crown.
Following a conference of shipping interests and harbour authorities in 1909, it was
decided a new system of harbour navigation lights and beacons was needed. Plans
proposed a pair of lights, one on Grotto Point and one on Parriwi Point, as the leading
lights into the harbour. The Parriwi Point light is spaced exactly one mile behind Grotto
Point, which was built 18.6m above high water.
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The Grotto Point Light is a white-painted masonry and brick tower, 8m high, with a
domed roof, adjoined by two barrel-vaulted sections and surrounded by a white picket
fence. A horizontal slit, 2m x 1m, on the seaward side of the tower provides an opening
for the light. Grotto Point is fitted with a catadioptric lens, meaning a combination of
reflection and refraction of the light; while the horizontal slit has red, white and green
sectors, white being the middle. A ship in the red or green sectors must change course
into the white sector, then line it up with the flashing green light on Parriwi Point before
entering the harbour. The Grotto Point light is occulting, where the period of light is
longer than the period of darkness, while the Parriwi light is flashing, where the period of
light is shorter than the period of darkness.
Construction of the tower began in 1910, and the light was first exhibited on
September 1, 1911. The land surrounding the light, corresponding to the boundaries of
Clarke’s 1853 grant, was dedicated for public recreation in November 1911, only to be
revoked and re-dedicated in June 1912. Acetylene gas for the light was initially
generated on-site, then replaced by cylinders of compressed gas brought to the site and
landed at a jetty on the western side of the point, until the light was eventually converted
to electricity from the suburban grid.
See also Manly Daily, December 11, 1996, “Grotto Point Landmark”.
Grotto Point lighthouse April 1939. Bob Reid
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