interesting facts
along the cape west coast
MILNERTON LIGHTHOUSE
Milnerton Lighthouse (Lat. 33º 52' 53" S. Long 18º 29' 10" E) is situated on the shores of Table Bay in the suburb of Milnerton. Mariners approaching Table Bay after dark are confronted by a maze of lights and a high level of background city illumination. The harbour navigation lights tend to merge with the city lights making identification difficult. Milnerton, with its red sector covering Robben Island, functions in conjunction with Robben Island and Green Point lights to remove any ambiguity in determining a safe anchorage.Milnerton Lighthouse was commissioned on 10 March 1960. The lighthouse is a twenty one metre cylindrical reinforced concrete tower, similar to the one at Cooper Light (Durban). The lantern is a standard Stone-Chance unit. The optic is a 250 mm catadioptric group-flashing, automatic revolving pedestal. It produces three white flashes every twenty seconds and the candle power is 800 000 cd. The height of the focal plane is 28 metres and the lighthouse has a range of 25 sea miles. Milnerton Lighthouse has a subsidiary fixed red sector light which covers the extremities of Robben Island. It is installed in the tower below the main revolving light.
Electric power is supplied by the Blaauwberg Administration and an automatic standby generator is installed in the base of the tower. An alarm system using coloured lights is monitored by Port Control at Table Bay harbour.
The cost of this installation was R38 320.
With permission from:
Southern Lights: Lighthouses of Southern Africa - Harold Williams - William Waterman Publishers
