When Ian Clifford glances out of his window after dark he always checks to make sure Kiama Lighthouse is shining bright.

An electrical engineer who has worked in radio and television and now does contract electronics and communications work, Mr Clifford has made it his mission to try and ensure all 142 heritage lighthouses across Australia are maintained and preserved.

Source: Kiama Historical Society

Mr Clifford is president of Lighthouses of Australia, a volunteer-run organisation tasked with promoting, protecting and preserving the hundreds of lighthouses that dot Australia’s coastline. It is a lifelong passion that started when he was a young boy growing up near the famous Cape Byron lighthouse.

“We would roam the headland as free-range kids and annoy the keeper to take us up,” he recalls. 

When Mr Clifford moved to Kiama more than 30 years ago he was delighted to discover the lighthouse, which he can see shining in his windows, was an integral part of the community. 

One day he noticed Kiama’s iconic beacon wasn’t lit up, so he “went to some pretty great lengths” to contact the relevant custodians to ensure it was fixed. When it happened again NSW Transport and Maritime Services entrusted Mr Clifford with its maintenance.

“I’m almost like a modern-day keeper,” says Mr Clifford. “The custodians handed me a key and said ‘we’ll call you if it doesn’t work’. So on the rare occasion it needs to be fixed, I sort it out. But it’s very reliable these days.”

When lightning struck the tower in 2017, Mr Clifford was part of a team tasked with removing the electronic system installed in the 1970s. It was replaced with an LED conversion system that turns off at sunrise and on at sundown.

Mr Clifford still checks nightly to make sure the iconic lighthouse burns bright. 

“I automatically glance at it every night and say ‘yeah it’s working’,” he laughs. 

Kiama is one of 350 working lighthouses across Australia. Built in November 1886 for £1350 pounds, it was lit up for the first time on New Year’s Day, 1887. For more than three decades a keeper would continuously light an oil-burning wick throughout the night to ensure the beacon - originally a green light - alerted ships to the dangers of Blowhole Point. Gas replaced oil in the early 1900s and by 1920 the lighthouse was unmanned. Kiama Lighthouse was electrified in 1969. 

“Kiama, like many heritage lighthouses, still has its original glass lens manufactured in 1886,” says Mr Clifford. “A UK company developed an LED array that could be retrofitted to the optic lenses of heritage lighthouses, some dating back even earlier than the 1880s. The heritage of these lighthouses might be a legacy from the past, but I see it as a gift for the future.

The Iconic Kiama Lighthouse

“Lighthouses are such a visible and rich part of Australia’s maritime heritage. They are a symbol of safety, strength, resilience and security and remain an exceptionally reliable navigational tool, even with the invention of GPS.

“Many lives were saved because without lighthouses there was nothing for ships to navigate by at night, especially when it was cloudy. It is our job to preserve and protect that history and to share those stories.”

Earlier this month Mr Clifford was invited to speak to experts from around the world at the International Association of Lighthouse Authorities meeting in Sydney.

Kiama Lighthouse got a mention in his speech. So did Point Perpendicular, whose light was deactivated in 1994, 95 years after it was first turned on. Mr Clifford and the team from Lighthouses of Australia have worked tirelessly for the past 25 years, lobbying to have the Jervis Bay lighthouse returned to a heritage site and the lights switched back on permanently.

Kiama Lighthouse's optic lens

“Hopefully we are successful," says Mr Clifford. "The area where I can really make a difference is working with the custodians to try and achieve conservation of heritage lighthouses as much as is practical. Lighthouses of Australia have come to realise the public is very interested in the heritage of our lighthouses. Kiama is a great example of that, it has an incredibly high visitation rate and there is always someone in front of it taking a photo.”