Table Cape is a

extinct volcano A volcano is a rupture in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most often found where tectonic plates ar ...

located near

Wynyard Wynyard may refer to: Australia: *Wynyard, Sydney, the district of Sydney CBD around Wynyard railway station, Sydney *Wynyard Park, Sydney *Wynyard, Tasmania *County of Wynyard, in the Murrumbidgee–Tumut region of New South Wales Canada: *Wynya ...

on the

North West The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each sepa ...

Tasmania ) , nickname = , image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdi ...

, Australia, it is also the name of the locality which encompasses the geological feature. Table Cape is a more or less circular extinct volcano with a flat top, its northern and eastern faces rise steeply from

Bass Strait Bass Strait () is a strait separating the island state of Tasmania from the Australian mainland (more specifically the coast of Victoria, with the exception of the land border across Boundary Islet). The strait provides the most direct wat ...

to a height of approximately above sea level. It was named by British navigator,

Matthew Flinders Captain (Royal Navy), Captain Matthew Flinders (16 March 1774 – 19 July 1814) was a British navigator and cartographer who led the first littoral zone, inshore circumnavigate, circumnavigation of mainland Australia, then called New Holland ...

, as he and

George Bass George Bass (; 30 January 1771 – after 5 February 1803) was a British naval surgeon and explorer of Australia. Early years Bass was born on 30 January 1771 at Aswarby, a hamlet near Sleaford, Lincolnshire, the son of a tenant farmer, Georg ...

circumnavigated

Van Diemen's Land Van Diemen's Land was the colonial name of the island of Tasmania used by the British during the European exploration of Australia in the 19th century. A British settlement was established in Van Diemen's Land in 1803 before it became a sep ...

(now Tasmania) in 1798 upon the ''Norfolk''. Flinders also progressively named the nearby Circular Head, Three Hummock and

Hunter Hunting is the human practice of seeking, pursuing, capturing, or killing wildlife or feral animals. The most common reasons for humans to hunt are to harvest food (i.e. meat) and useful animal products (fur/ hide, bone/tusks, horn/antler, et ...

Islands. Table Cape's top and surrounding areas are composed of fertile

basalt Basalt (; ) is an aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the surface of a rocky planet or moon. More than 90% of a ...

soils and are heavily cultivated, the area is renowned for the annual flowering of

tulips Tulips (''Tulipa'') are a genus of spring-blooming perennial herbaceous bulbiferous geophytes (having bulbs as storage organs). The flowers are usually large, showy and brightly coloured, generally red, pink, yellow, or white (usually in warm ...

during spring and accompanying tulip festival. The 2011 census determined a population of 324 for the state suburb of Flowerdale, which the locality of Table Cape forms part of.

Landscape and conservation

Whilst the top of Table Cape and surrounding district is heavily utilised for agriculture, the steep and rocky ocean-facing embankments remain largely undisturbed from human activity and are covered in dense

scrubland Shrubland, scrubland, scrub, brush, or bush is a plant community characterized by vegetation dominated by shrubs, often also including grasses, herbs, and geophytes. Shrubland may either occur naturally or be the result of human activity. It ma ...

. The 1.26 km² Table Cape Conservation Area (IUCN IV) extends along the shoreline from Boat Harbour Beach to the Table Cape State Reserve (IUCN III) before continuing along to

Freestone Cove Wynyard ( /ˈwɪnjɚd/) ''wi-nyuhd'') is a rural town located on the North West coast of Tasmania, Australia. Wynyard is situated west of Burnie. As of the 2021 census, Wynyard has an estimated population of 6,296 The town is a regional hub ...

near

Fossil Bluff Fossil Bluff is a seasonal British aircraft refuelling station located on the east coast of Alexander Island in Antarctica. In operation since 1961, its facilities provide fuel, storage, and ancillary support for British exploration and operation ...

. '' Beddomeia capensis'' is an endangered

freshwater snail Freshwater snails are gastropod mollusks which live in fresh water. There are many different families. They are found throughout the world in various habitats, ranging from ephemeral pools to the largest lakes, and from small seeps and springs ...

known only to occur along four small streams on Table Cape, and a tributary of Big Creek near Calder. However, recent surveys have only been able to identify the species at two unnamed streams near the Table Cape Lighthouse, with the total length of occupied stream less than . Population declines are due to

habitat degradation Habitat destruction (also termed habitat loss and habitat reduction) is the process by which a natural habitat becomes incapable of supporting its native species. The organisms that previously inhabited the site are displaced or dead, thereby ...

from agricultural land usage and competition from other introduced

hydrobiid snail Hydrobiidae, commonly known as mud snails, is a large cosmopolitan family of very small freshwater and brackish water snails with an operculum; they are in the order Littorinimorpha. Distribution Hydrobiidae are found in much of the world ...

Tommeginer Aboriginal clan

The territory of the Tommeginer clan of

Aboriginal Tasmanians The Aboriginal Tasmanians ( Palawa kani: ''Palawa'' or ''Pakana'') are the Aboriginal people of the Australian island of Tasmania, located south of the mainland. For much of the 20th century, the Tasmanian Aboriginal people were widely, an ...

is located around the Table Cape region. The tribe most likely built the stone tidal fish traps that remain evident at nearby

Table Cape Lighthouse

Table Cape Lighthouse is a Tasmanian heritage-listed lighthouse situated on the 120 hectare Table Cape State Reserve. It has been open for public tours since 2010. After the wrecks of the ''Emma Prescott'' in 1867 and the

schooner A schooner () is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: fore-and-aft rigged on all of two or more masts and, in the case of a two-masted schooner, the foremast generally being shorter than the mainmast. A common variant, the topsail schoo ...

''Orson'' in 1884, a lighthouse was commissioned to be constructed on Table Cape to aide navigation into the port of Wynyard on the

Inglis River The Inglis River is a river in North West Tasmania, Australia, it extends approximately from the Campbell Ranges near Takone before discharging into Bass Strait at Wynyard. The Flowerdale River is the largest tributary system on the Inglis ...

. Table Cape Lighthouse was designed by Huckson and Hutchinson of Hobart, the light apparatus was sourced from the

Chance Brothers Chance Brothers and Company was a glassworks originally based in Spon Lane, Smethwick, West Midlands (formerly in Staffordshire), in England. It was a leading glass manufacturer and a pioneer of British glassmaking technology. The Chance f ...

of England and was constructed by a local builder, John Luck. The project suffered from delays due to poor quality roads leading up to the construction site on Table Cape, and bricks of insufficient quality sourced from the specially-constructed

kiln A kiln is a thermally insulated chamber, a type of oven, that produces temperatures sufficient to complete some process, such as hardening, drying, or chemical changes. Kilns have been used for millennia to turn objects made from clay int ...

in the nearby town of

Burnie Burnie is a port city on the north-west coast of Tasmania, Australia. When founded in 1827, it was named Emu Bay, being renamed after William Burnie, a director of the Van Diemen's Land Company, in the early 1840s. , Burnie had an urban pop ...

, instead, bricks had to be imported from Victoria. The lighthouse was first lit up on 1 August 1888, it stands about high and has a diameter of at the base. Seventeen days after the official opening, the head lighthouse keeper's 14-month-old son died from illness. The undertaker, who had travelled up to the lighthouse with a coffin for the child, encouraged the family to perform the burial nearby due to the appalling weather conditions at the time. The small gravesite remains to be found nearby today. Originally powered by oil, Table Cape Lighthouse was converted to automatic

acetylene Acetylene ( systematic name: ethyne) is the chemical compound with the formula and structure . It is a hydrocarbon and the simplest alkyne. This colorless gas is widely used as a fuel and a chemical building block. It is unstable in its pur ...

operation in 1920. In 1923, the lightkeepers were withdrawn from manning the tower, and after several years of deterioration, the nearby keepers' cottages were demolished in 1926. In 1979, mains electricity was connected and an electric beacon with standby batteries was installed, the maximum nominal range of the 100W

halogen lamp A halogen lamp (also called tungsten halogen, quartz-halogen, and quartz iodine lamp) is an incandescent lamp consisting of a tungsten filament sealed in a compact transparent envelope that is filled with a mixture of an inert gas and a smal ...

is approximately .

Gallery

External links

Table Cape Tulip Farm

Table Cape Lighthouse Tours

References