The independent Commonwealth of Australia occupies the entire Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. British exploration and settling of the continent began late in the 1700s, with the first colony established in the Sydney area in 1788. By the 1850s there were six British colonies, including New South Wales and Queensland in the east, Victoria and South Australia in the south, Western Australia in the west, and Tasmania off the south coast. The Commonwealth was formed on New Years Day 1901 as a federation of the six colonies. Australia is both the smallest continent and the sixth-largest country in the world, with a population of about 27 million. It continues to be a federation of the six original states, plus the federally administered Northern Territory, Australian Capital Territory, and Jervis Bay Territory. It is a Commonwealth Realm recognizing the British monarch as head of state. Queensland, the state occupying the northeastern quarter of Australia, has a long tropical coastline facing the Coral Sea (a basin of the Pacific Ocean) and fringed in large part by the famous Great Barrier Reef, the world's largest coral reef system. This coastline ends at Cape York, the northernmost point of the Australian continent. Beyond Cape York the Torres Strait separates Australia from New Guinea and provides a passage from the Coral Sea to the Arafura Sea (the easternmost arm of the Indian Ocean). This page includes lighthouses of the Far North region of Queensland, including the Cape York Peninsula, the state's northwest coast on the Gulf of Carpentaria, and its northeast coast south through the Cairns area and Cassowary Coast Region. Pages for Northern and Central Queensland and Southern Queensland cover lighthouses in the rest of the state. Coastal lighthouses in Australia are operated by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA), an agency within the Department of Infrastructure and Transport. After automation AMSA transferred many of the station properties to the control of local or state authorities or organizations. ARLHS numbers are from the ARLHS World List of Lights. Admiralty numbers are from volume K of the Admiralty List of Lights & Fog Signals. U.S. NGA numbers are from Publication 111.
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Gulf of Carpentaria Lighthouses
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Torres Shire (Torres Strait) Lighthouses
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Great Barrier Reef Beacon
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East Coast (Coral Sea) Lighthouses
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![]() Albany Rock Light, Cape York, 2012 photo copyright CivilPlus Constructions |
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Information available on lost lighthouses:
Notable faux lighthouses:
Adjoining pages: North: Southern Papua New Guinea | South: Northern and Central Queensland | West: Northern Territory
Return to the Lighthouse Directory index | Ratings key
Posted July 6, 2004; checked and revised January 19, 2025. Lighthouses: 45; lightships: 1. Site copyright 2025 Russ Rowlett and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.