Port Melbourne's beacons, also known as the leading lights, define the centre line of the Port Melbourne Channel. The light was visible for 14 nautical miles. Until superseded by more recent technology, the beacons guided vessels safely to the piers.
In 1923 once the new Railway Pier, later Princes Pier, was fully operational, the Melbourne Harbor Trust wrote to…
Shrouded in Controversy
Apartment Towers at Beacon Cove (2021). Photo: David Thompson, PMHPS Collection.
This peaceful waterfront has been a centre of controversy many times since it was first occupied by Europeans in 1836.
Surveyor Darke’s Camp, Sandridge. Watercolour by W.F.E. Liardet (1875) State Library of Victoria
William Darke was one of the surveyors given the task of surveying the district…
Port Melbourne, March '92 by Brian Cleveland
The railings along the seafront looking back towards Princes Pier.
Port Melbourne by Brian Cleveland
View of the railings along the seafront with the sea beacon and Princes Pier in the background.
Port Melbourne, May 1992, Princes Pier by Brian Cleveland
View of Port Melbourne from May 1992 featuring the sea beacon and Princes Pier.
Beacon & Princes Pier by Brian Cleveland
View of the sea beacon and Princes Pier fro the roadway between the piers.
Princes Pier by Brian Cleveland
Undated sketch of Princes Pier with the sea beacon and Station Pier in the background.
Princes & Station Piers, Port Melbourne, April 1992 by Brian Cleveland
Princes pier with the sea beacon and the cranes on Station Pier in the background.
Port Melbourne, March '92 by Brian Cleveland
View of Princes Pier (right) and Station Pier (left) from March 1992.
Port Melbourne, 1994 by Brian Cleveland
Electrical substation at the foot of Station Pier with the beacon and Princes Pier in the background.