[2] There are eleven timber flights of stairs in the lighthouse, with twenty steps each, which must be climbed in order to reach the top.

[3] The lighthouse was originally established in 1861,[4] in response to the sinking of the barque Cataraqui sixteen years earlier, a disaster which had resulted in the deaths of 400 people.

The superintendent often came into conflict with hunters and other established inhabitants of the island, with one 1873 report stating: There are certain lawless men who have taken up their residence on the island who make a practice of annoying the Superintendent in every possible way, destroying his cattle, pulling down the fences and taking his hay and in fact they say they are determined to make the place too hot for him, and I much fear it will end in some serious injury to the station or perhaps to the light itself.The superintendents were required to be extremely self-sufficient, as only one supply ship visited the site a year.

[3] In the 1920s, it was determined that it was no longer necessary for the light to be staffed on a full-time basis, and automation systems were added to the lighthouse.

[6] To rectify this oversight, Australian Governor-General Quentin Bryce officially opened the lighthouse in a ceremony on 5 November 2011.