It was a day like many for Brian Burford, a specialized painter in charge of the maintenance of the Lady of the Lighthouse of Cape Bruly, on the sweat coast of Tasmania. He was removing rust from an internal wall when he noticed an unusual reflection. He approached and discovered a glass bottle, sealed and well hidden in the wall.
Inside, he found an envelope containing two thoroughly bent, handwritten sheets. The document is dated January 29, 1903
Meech described the work done on the lighthouse in detail that year: the construction of a new scale, a renewed floor, a completely replaced lantern and a modern lens. He also indicated the costs incurred and the names of the people involved in the works. A sort of technical and human diary, carefully hidden, perhaps to be found by someone, one day.
A delicate operation
Once the bottle has been discovered, the news immediately reached the experts of the Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service. Annita Waghorn, head of the historical heritage, told her surprise:
They called us the painters saying that they had found a bottle in the lighthouse wall, we were incredulous.
That part of the structure was not accessible from 1903, the year in which the current lantern was installed. For over a century, that small space was sealed, and with him the message.
To open the bottle and recover the document without ruining it, we entrusted ourselves to the conservatives of the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery. The cap was sealed with bitumen, a material very similar to tar, as Cobus Van Breda, conservative of the card explained:
We had to remove it by scratching with extreme precision, without breaking the glass.
The letter was then folded in a very narrow way. Extracting her without tearing it was a job of patience and precision. It took days to be able to read it completely.
An open window on the past
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Posted by Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service On Wednesday, August 6, 2025
Jr Meech was not a simple technician: he directly followed the management of some of the most isolated and difficult to reach Tasmania headlights, such as those of Maatsuyker Island, Tasman Island, Cape Sister, Table Cape and Mersey Bluff.
His letter is not just a technical report: it is also a concrete trace of how he lived and worked in the headlights over one hundred years ago. Writing, details, names mentioned: everything helps to reconstruct a piece of Australian maritime history.
For now, the document will be kept safe. The museum is evaluating where and how to expose it to the public.
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