Shining a light on 150 years of housekeeping

MASTER mariner, shipwreck survivor and father of 16, adventurous Englishman Captain Thomas Musgrave was one of the first "head keepers" of the Wilsons Promontory Lighthouse.

With a family of such size Captain Musgrave probably wasn't seeking solitude when he got the job in 1869. The lighthouse records suggest he turned to lighthouse keeping because he promised his wife he would never go to sea again after being shipwrecked for 19 months on remote islands off New Zealand.

For 10 years Captain Musgrave and his deputies kept the 32 lamps in the Prom lighthouse burning using rapeseed and possibly whale oil. While the light was their main job, the 19th century lightkeepers also recorded weather details and signalled ships.

Captain Musgrave's decade in charge at Wilsons Promontory spanned world events that included Russia declaring war on the Ottoman Empire. In Melbourne, meanwhile, Australia played England at Test cricket for the first time. Closer to home, six of the captain's 16 children were born in rapid succession.

The colourful Musgrave is just one of many lightkeepers to have worked at the Wilsons Promontory lighthouse, which celebrates its 150th birthday on July 15.

For three months in 1949, from February 24 to May 26, the relief lightkeeper was a young B. Ruxton, later better known as Bruce Ruxton when he became the outspoken Victorian president of the RSL.

More than a century after Captain Musgrave moved on and nearly half a century after Mr Ruxton, Chris Richter was appointed "head keeper" of the lighthouse in 1990. Mr Richter's CV is proof lightkeeping is a highly mobile trade. His appointment was to be the fourth of his five stints at the lighthouse with his family.

Mr Richter was head keeper at the lighthouse when it became fully automated in 1993.

Although made redundant by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority in 1997, Mr Richter returned to the rocky point in 2003 as "lightstation manager" for Parks Victoria, which now runs the station. Together with fellow lightstation manager Ailsa Richter (his wife) and Parks Victoria, they have returned it to pristine condition.

Almost all the many buildings, walls and surfaces at the lightstation are white - and they're all spotless.

The looming 150th anniversary means a lot to the couple, whose three (now adult) daughters were all raised at lightstations around southern Australia and did much of their schooling (by correspondence) at them.

"To me it means ongoing preservation of the station. We've actually retained a bit of our heritage, a bit of our Australian heritage," Mrs Richter says.

"It probably means a lot to us, because back in the '80s when the lights were all being automated and de-staffed, de-manned (and) de-staffed totally, the federal government - their aim was to just automate the lights (and) walk away," Mr Richter says.

While they technically now have no responsibility for the actual lighthouse light and the tower it sits in, many of the responsibilities from earlier times continue for the pair. But a new responsibility which didn't exist in the lightkeeping days is hosting visitors, because accommodation is now available for fit walkers.

The Richters are constantly painting surfaces, polishing brass, cleaning and maintaining things to limit damage from salt and wind.

A lighthouse keeper's work is never done. If not cleaning or repairing, the Richters are maintaining power, water and sewerage systems.

And there's always grass to mow, because there's plenty of rain. In the 48 hours to 9am Friday the station recorded 118.2 millimetres of rain, while Melbourne recorded only 7.4.