Painter discovers 122-year-old Message in Tasmanian lighthouse
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Brian Burford, a painter working inside Cape Bruny Lighthouse in Tasmania, Australia, found a glass bottle hidden within a wall cavity.
The lighthouse, built in 1838, stands on a headland along Tasmania’s southeast coast. Inside the bottle, Burford discovered a letter dated January 29, 1903, written by JR Meech, a lighthouse inspector for the Hobart Marine Board. Meech’s letter detailed upgrades completed at Cape Bruny Lighthouse that year, including a new staircase, floor, lantern room, and lens.
He also documented the project’s cost and the names of the workers involved, preserving a record of the lighthouse’s transformation nearly 70 years after its initial construction. Meech oversaw maintenance at several Tasmanian lighthouses, including those on Cape Sorell, Maatsuyker Island, and Tasman Island. Removing the letter proved difficult. Conservators at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery carefully removed bitumen sealing the bottle’s cork and then painstakingly extracted the tightly folded letter without causing damage.
Tasmania Parks and Wildlife plans to put the letter on public display, though the exact location remains undecided. Officials also noted that William John Hawkins, a superintendent at the lighthouse from 1876 to 1914, participated in the 1903 modernization, which also included a new telegraph connection.
