John Cook - The Last Lighthouse Keeper

John Cook moved from the UK to Tasmania as a boy with his mother at the outbreak of World War II. John grew up loving the natural environment and being practical. After serving in the Australian Navy, being a walking-track maintenance worker, operating a mobile x-ray health scanning unit and running service stations, John joined the Australian Lighthouse Service in 1968. He was a lightkeeper and later head keeper at various Tasmanian lights, notably Tasman Island, Maatsuyker Island and Bruny Island, until 1993. John was also an honorary National Park Ranger.

Jon Bauer was born and raised in the UK before moving to Australia in 2001, where he lived for thirteen happy years. He now lives in the UK again, where he works as a somatic psychotherapist as well as continuing to write short and long fiction. His novel Rocks in the Belly was longlisted for the Miles Franklin Award, won Best Debut in the Indies, was shortlisted for the Dublin IMPAC, broadcast on ABC National and published in eight countries. He has never worked in a lighthouse but he does have a lot of woolly jumpers, experience with extremes of wilderness and solitude and shaves only sporadically. He is working on a new novel.

First published in 2020

Copyright John Cook with Jon Bauer 2020

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. The Australian Copyright Act 1968 (the Act) allows a maximum of one chapter or 10 per cent of this book, whichever is the greater, to be photocopied by any educational institution for its educational purposes provided that the educational institution (or body that administers it) has given a remuneration notice to the Copyright Agency (Australia) under the Act.

Certain names and details have been changed to protect the privacy of individuals mentioned.

Allen & Unwin

83 Alexander Street

Crows Nest NSW 2065

Australia

Phone: (61 2) 8425 0100

Email:

Web:www.allenandunwin.com

ISBN 978 1 76087 538 1

eISBN 978 1 76087 461 2

Internal photos courtesy of authors collection

Set by Midland Typesetters, Australia

Cover image: Maatsuyker Island, Tasmania (photography by Taylor Stevens and Jesse Siebler)

For my dear children.

And to the late Mr Bill Nichols (ex-RAN), my first head lightkeeper, and the late Mr Cyril Griffiths (a D-Day veteran), both of whom taught me the true principles of being a lightkeeper, and to all the dedicated lightkeepers throughout history who have served in this isolated occupation.

Books, like lighthouses, illuminate the dark seas of life. The searching beam at a light station wont identify every object in the ocean, nor can a memoir capture a life in its true entirety. This story is mostly true, from where I am now, though some events, dates and individuals have been fictionalised.

John Cook

Hobart, May 2020

My family and I first met Head Keeper John Cook en route to Maatsuyker Island light station, aboard the Kathleen Del Mar, an old Scottish fishing boat which was the fortnightly mail and stores boat.

I was the new lightkeeper, both excited and apprehensive to be embarking on this new adventure.

John was well respected in the light service and proved to be a great teacher and mentor. He has remained a very close family friend ever since.

On arrival at our new home, I found John to be very friendly, compassionate and hard-working, as he helped us to settle into our new environment quickly.

This is a book about Johns epic time as a lightkeeper and his involvement in many notable events including the Blythe Star disaster. It is also of historical significance both now and in the future, as he was one of the last traditional kerosene lightkeepers in Australia.

This book will take the reader to another time experiencing the life, romance and hardships in beautiful but rugged environments, as well as being technically informative.

I absolutely recommend this book. It provides a unique insight into the lifestyle that has now sadly been overtaken by technology.

Anthony (Tony) Parsey, former Lightkeeper, Maatsuyker Island, Eddystone Point, Cape Bruny and Head Keeper, Cape Bruny

Some nights Id lie out on that flimsy balcony, almost a hundred feet above the ground, and roar for you. The sky would be doing its slow roll, the stars strewn, nothing between me and Antarctica but the raging of the ocean. Id feel like I was in thin air. Suspended from the tall, hollow tower by just a few strips of steel. The wind would be howling, and that great beam of light would whoom past my face. I swear it was bright enough that you could hear it going over. Whoomone million candles worth of energy, punching out into the black.

I was alone in all that nothing and noisethe last man before the ice, the most southerly man on the whole continentcalling out to my kids.

I knew you couldnt hear me calling. Nobody could. I was too far away from the world, which I suppose was how I liked it. Id marooned myself in a life I loved, even if it kept me away from all of you. I used to blame my absence on my job, but it takes a certain type of man to choose the life I chose.

Lighthouses are just romantic museums now, but back then they could devour a man if he let them. I did. I let them. And Id do it again. If technology hadnt taken the lights from me, Id be there still, lying out on that balcony, pining for you.

This is the story of why. This is an attempt to bring you with me this time. This is my way of showing you why I chose that life. I want to show you what wonderful and addictive beasts lighthouses were. I want to show you that my being away mattered.

I want to show you what a man does when he cant be in the world.

Ive always had visions of escape. I spent most of my school days staring out the window, dreaming of living out in the bush.

I lost my father when I was fourmy mother told me he died in the warand, not long after that, I practically lost my mother too. For a while, we were inseparable. I was her only child and she had lost her husband. When she met my stepfather, I was quickly banished from my place beside her, and each child they hadthreepushed me further into the cold. I felt I was living in someone elses family. I ran away several times as a boy, trying to turn my dream of escape into reality. Id team up with friends who were also invested in getting away. But we always came up short because we couldnt get past the tollbooth on the Hobart bridge without getting caught.

I left school at fourteen and worked in fishing for a while before joining the navy at seventeen, the youngest age I could join. I was hoping to live out the daydreams of my childhood, joining the navy as my father had done, but I didnt get to go off sailing the seven seas; I was fixing planes up in New South Wales instead. I was basically just a mechanic with a fancy uniform.

One Christmas when I was home on leave, I wandered into a big retail shop to buy some film. I loved photography, even as a young man. In those days, photography was all film and if you wanted to see your pictures you had to get them developed. People dont print photos anymore but back then they were set in albums like jewels.