Melbourne Australia

William Buckley's Cave is located in the cliffs under Point Lonsdale lighthouse. Buckley was a convict who escaped the prison near Sorrento in 1803, just two months after arriving from England. He made his way around the Bay (Melbourne didn't exist until the 1830's) and evaded capture for the next 30 years, living in this cave and others like it along the coast, and befriending the local Wathaurung people. In 1835 he decided to re-emerge from hiding and walked into Melbourne, told his story, and was soon pardoned by the Governor. Buckley then worked as an Aboriginal interpreter and spent his last 19 years in Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania), married, and seemed to live contentedly to the age of 75.

The Queenscliff High Light, also variously known as the Black Lighthouse, Fort Queenscliff Lighthouse or Shortland Bluff Light (1862) is one of only three in the world built from unpainted black stone and the only one in the southern hemisphere. It is located inside the historic Fort Queenscliff.

Together with the nearby white Queenscliff Low Light, it was built in 1862 to replace the former sandstone lighthouse of 1843 on the same site which was underpowered and deteriorating. The lightsource is located 40 metres above sea level (focal plane). Depending on the tower's bearing it emits either a fixed light or an occulting signal with an interval of 15 seconds. The black lighthouse is one of four in Queenscliff that are used as a leading line to guide ships through the notoriously dangerous mouth of Port Phillip Bay. There are several conflicting accounts of where the basalt for the building came from. One version states that it came from Scotland as a ships ballast. In another version, the stone was quarried in Melbourne and shipped to Queenscliff. The fact that the stone was shipped may have led to the former theory's conception.[1] The third version, according to current tour guides, is that the entire lighthouse was cut in Scotland, transported, and assembled on-site by numbers.

The lighthouse was certainly designed in Scotland. Strangely, although Shortland's Bluff on which it is built is 20m or more above sea level, it was designed as a wave-washed lighthouse, with curved walls to deflect shock from waves, and with an entrance 5m above the base which is still visible. This entrance was used via a rope ladder for the first ten years until a ground-level door was cut.

The light was converted to gas in 1890, and then to electricity in 1924. It is supposed that the first public telephone service in Victoria was installed here. Today the lighthouse is unmanned and automated, and is serviced by the Port of Melbourne Corporation.

(1882) A superb example of the defences that existed around the coastline of Australia from colonial times through to the end of the Second World War. Fort Queenscliff, on Shortland's Bluff, was built around the Black Lighthouse during the Australian Gold Rush after concerns that ships carrying gold might be susceptible to attack from privateers. Fort Queenscliff Museum was established at Fort Queenscliff in 1982.

Queenscliff is the closest port to one of Australia's busiest but most dangerous rips - the mouth of Port Phillip Bay. This museum recounts the many stories of bravery, rescue and loss, covering shipwrecks, rescues and the important work of pilots. Exhibits include lifeboats, early diving equipment, lighthouse equipment, historic charts and artefacts from shipwrecks.

Contact (03) 5258 3440. Location: Wharf Street, Queenscliff, Victoria.

Bellarine Railway operates on a 16 km section of a formerly disused 3'6" gauge branch line on the Bellarine Peninsula between the coastal town of Queenscliff and Drysdale, near Geelong. The Bellarine Railway has a current fleet of ten heritage steam locomotives, and a number of these are operational at any one time. Visitors have the opportunity to ride behind locomotives from each Australian state, and sometimes in unique combinations such as a Tasmanian locomotive, teamed with a Western Australian locomotive hauling a train of heritage carriages from Tasmania and Queensland. Passengers travel in comfortable leather seats as the train traverses rural farmland on its way to Queenscliff and skirts the foreshore around Swan Bay during the 16 km trip.

Trains run every Sunday of the year and several days a week during school holidays. Contact: (03) 5258 2069. More >>

Prior to European settlement, it was inhabited by the Bengalat Bulag clan of the Wautharong tribe, a member of the Kulin nation.

European explorers first arrived in 1802, Lieutenant John Murray in January and Captain Matthew Flinders in April. The first European settler in the area was convict escapee William Buckley between 1803 and 1835, latterly in a cave beneath the Point Lonsdale Lighthouse, with the local Aborigines. Permanent settlement began in 1836 when squatters arrived in the area known as Whale Head. The name was changed to Shortland's Bluff in honour of Lieutenant John Shortland, who assisted in the surveying of Port Phillip. Land sales began in 1853, the same year the name was changed to Queenscliff by Lieutenant Charles La Trobe, in honour of Queen Victoria.



Originally a fishing village, Queenscliff soon became an important cargo port, servicing steamships trading in Port Philip. A shipping pilot service was established in 1841, and its two lighthouses, the High and Low Lights, were constructed in 1862-63. Queenscliff also played an important military role.[4] Fort Queenscliff was built between 1879 and 1889, and operated as the command centre for a network of forts around the port.

Queenscliff became a tourist destination in the late 19th century, with visitors arriving from Melbourne after a two-hour journey on the paddle steamer, Ozone. The opening of a railway line to Geelong in 1879 brought increasing tourists to the area, and numerous luxury hotels (or coffee palaces) were built to accommodate them. The Palace Hotel was built in 1879 (later renamed Esplanade Hotel), the Baillieu Hotel was built in 1881 (later renamed Ozone Hotel), the Vue Grande Hotel was built in 1883, and the Queenscliff Hotel was built in 1887. These and other buildings of that era are highlights of the town's distinctive archiectural heritage.

The advent of the car saw Queenscliff drop in popularity as a tourist destination, as tourists were no longer dependent on its role as a transport hub. The railway ceased weekly passenger services in 1950, and was closed in 1976. The 1980s saw a return in the town's tourist popularity.

Origin of name: The area was named Whale Head in 1836 but was soon renamed Shortland Bluff after a midshipman on the vessel which carried out an early official survey of Port Phillip Bay. A lighthouse was erected at Shortland Bluff in 1842 or 1843. Land sales proceeded in 1853 at which time Gov. Charles Joseph La Trobe renamed the townsite Queenscliff in honour of Queen Victoria. The geographical feature, Point Lonsdale, was named in 1837 after Captain William Lonsdale, the first police magistrate of Port Phillip.