Ruins at Cape St George Historic Lighthouse

Ruins at Cape St George Historic Lighthouse

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Ruins at Cape St George Historic Lighthouse

Booderee National Park, Jervis Bay, ACT.

In 1770, Captain Cook sighted the bay and named it St George’s Head (it was St George’s Day April 1770) and called Point Perpendicular ‘Long Nose’.

In 1791, the bay was named ‘Jervis Bay’ by Lieutenant Bowen of the Atlantic in honour of Admiral Sir John Jervis under whom he had served.

Construction of this sandstone lighthouse began in 1854, and the elegant structure was completed in 1856. Unfortunately the lighthouse was built in the wrong spot, and it came to be regarded as a navigational hazard, resulting in its partial demolition in the early 1900s. Harriet Parker, the daughter of an assistant lighthouse keeper, was accidentally shot dead by a friend when they were looking for a horse near Green Patch in 1887. Her grave is in the Green Patch camping area.

The ruin of Cape St George lighthouse is perhaps the most significant European site in the Park. The ruin was listed on the National Estate Register in 1981. The listing is in recognition of the ruin’s important setting, stonework and as a relic of early European occupation.

In the early 1880s, Jacob Ellmoos established what appears to have been the first European settlement, other than the lighthouse, in the Jervis Bay Territory. He selected 120 acres (48 hectares) on the eastern shore of Sussex Inlet, where he and his family set up a fishing enterprise and farm. In 1890 the Ellmoos family opened a guesthouse there, named Christian’s Minde in memory of Jacob’s brother Christian who had died in 1888. This historic building, although still standing, no longer serves as a guesthouse.

Ruins at Cape St George Historic Lighthouse belongs to the following groups:

Australian Landmarks and Icons, Heritage in Stone and Live, Love, Dream: Available for sale as

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