Harveys Return Lightkeepers Kangaroo Island SA Memorial Inscriptions


© Copyright 1996-2022 Kerry Raymond and David Horton

Harvey's Return Lightkeepers, (Cape Borda Lighthouse), Kangaroo Island, SA


Address: On the road to Cape Borda Lighthouse a couple of km from the end. The cemetery is just off the road. There is a bush track leading north to the sea where the supplies were landed for the lighthouse (Harvey's Return).
Opened: Sep-1858
# graves: 16

(From memorial erected by the Department of Transport 1984.
Harvey's return cemetery
This cemetery is the resting place of sixteen persons who lived at the Cape Borda Lighthouse complex.
The earliest contemporary record is the burial of Captain Woodward on 13th September 1858
A memorial to those early pioneers when the only access to this area was by ship at Harvey's return.

(from display)
Feb 24 1858: Minutes from the Trinity Board
It (Harvey's return) needs to be made more convenient for loading stores, oil, etc.. that trucks and chains were required for raising the lighthouse stores (but concluded) that no funds were to be made available.
Captain Woodward relayed a few curt words to the Board and when members arrived upon the Yatala to first inspect the new station, they also bought a horse harness and dray, hay and timber and palings for a stable. However a wayward underkeeper allowed the horse to stray and stores had to be man hauled onde again.
In 1859 another horse arrived and a double track was laid down the steepest incline. A cable system was powered by a horse capstan near the top. A paddock was also cleared to grow horse feed, but the animals continued to be the subject to injury and loss.
The sea to land transfer of goods continued to be a dangerous hazard until a derrick crane was erected atop a rocky outcrop with an additional connecting rail in 1923.

More information about
Kangaroo Island Lighthouses
SA Gen Web cemeteries project - Harvey's Return
Lighthouses of South Australia - Cape Borda
[ozburials.com - Cape Borda Cemetery Kangaroo Island
Cape Borda Lighthouse Cemetery
Susan Marsden, A short history of Kangaroo Island

Photographed: Dec 2011


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