A 122-year-old message in a bottle hidden inside a wall has been uncovered from one of Australia’s oldest lighthouses in Tasmania, sparking interest from historians.
The rare find was made earlier this week at Cape Bruny Lighthouse in Tasmania by a specialist painter, Brian Burford, during routine conservation work on the lantern room of the heritage-listed lighthouse on Bruny Island.
Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service (PWS) said the painter noticed “something unusual” while treating a badly rusted section of the wall and, on closer inspection, realised it was a glass bottle containing a letter.
The bottle was brought to Hobart, where conservators from the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery (TMAG) carefully opened it, cutting through a cork coated in bitumen before extracting the fragile contents.
Inside was an envelope with a two-page handwritten letter dated 29 January 1903, written by James Robert Meech, then Inspector of Lighthouses for the Hobart Marine Board.
The letter details significant upgrades carried out at the lighthouse, including the installation of a new iron spiral staircase to replace a wooden one, a new concrete floor, and a replacement lantern room.
It also records changes to the light’s flash sequence, “three seconds of light followed by nineteen and a half seconds of darkness”, replacing a 50-second cycle, and lists the names of the keepers and workers involved in the project. According to PWS, the works cost the Marine Board £2,200, equivalent to around $474,000 AUD today.
PWS Manager for Historic Heritage Annita Waghorn said the condition of the message was remarkable.
“You could feel the excitement in the room when the letter came out in one piece,” she said. “This letter gives us an insight into the works that happened at the lighthouse and the people who undertook this work. This information adds to the rich history of Bruny Island and the Cape Bruny Lighthouse.”
TMAG conservators used a humidification process to relax and flatten the old paper for preservation. The letter will eventually go on public display, but the location is yet to be confirmed.
The Cape Bruny Lighthouse, first lit in 1838, guided ships through some of Australia’s most treacherous waters for over 150 years before being decommissioned in 1996 and replaced by a nearby solar-powered light.
The find has surprised historians, with PWS officials, as no one had accessed the sealed wall space since the lantern room was installed in 1903.
Local media described it as “one of the most significant lighthouse-related discoveries in years”, offering a rare time capsule from the state’s maritime past.
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