Grassy Hill - The Lighthouse
Grassy Hill Lighthouse circa 1914
Cooktown’s Last Lighthouse Family
Harry Geater was the last employed light keeper at Grassy Hill lighthouse, serving from 1922-1927. In 1927, the Office of Lightkeeper was abolished when the lighthouse was fully automated with the original apparatus replaced by an open flame acetylene gas burner. Harry, his wife, Florence, and four daughters enjoyed their happy mainland life. The older girls had attended school with their long walk each day carefully watched over by Harry and his lighthouse telescope and a megaphone to hurry them along!
Florence enjoyed the social life and services that a town provided. With their newly born daughter, the Geater family left their only town posting and moved to Goods Island (Palilag) in the Torres Strait.
Our Lighthouse in the Limelight
After shining its beam across the reefs for a hundred years, the threat of the losing the lighthouse galvanised the Cooktown community in 1987. Faced with the Government's plan to decommission the facility, a group of residents believing the Lighthouse to be of great local, national and international significance campaigned for nearly a year to save the Lighthouse for the community and visitors into the future. Receiving substantial media attention, support came from all over Australia. The power of a united voice prevailed and in 1988 the Lighthouse and the area around it, was “sold” to the Cooktown people for $100.
