If this lighthouse looks familiar to a lot of grown up Australians, that is because it was featured in the family television series Round the twist! Who didn’t watch this when they were in school? The lighthouse was built in late 1890 and was first illuminated in September 1981. Originally called Eagles Nest Point, it was renamed Split Point lighthouse in 1913. The tower design is modelled on a chimney like structure to promote air flow from the base to the top. This air flow made the kerosene flame shine brighter. Lighthouse enabled the Captains on a ship to determine their location along the coast and at night allowed them to navigate away from the coast. Like a lot of light houses, this one has it’s own ghost story. A pretty young girl is said to call out to men from the ocean tempting them to join her. She has even been said to come up out of the sea and take hold of a man to take him out to sea with her. It is said that she needs a man to come into the ocean with her before she can peace. She is said to be a light keeper’s daughter who drowned on a fishing trip with her father after she discovered that she was pregnant. There is not historical information to validate this is true. I have travelled to this lighthouse at night with a group of men to see if there was any truth to this tale, and we all returned with no reports of a siren at sea.
