#LIGHTHOUSE KEEPER VACANCIES FULL#

'It's the loudest, most awkward cooing, crying, shrieking sound you've ever heard in your life, just right outside your window, all hours of the night.

#LIGHTHOUSE KEEPER VACANCIES FULL#

In full swing of the season, the sound of the shearwaters seems to shake the whole island,' Taylor says, sounding strangely thrilled. Like suddenly, you were a child playing in the mud again.'Īnd then there are the birds, more than one million short-tailed shearwaters who assail this outcrop of rock with noise and excrement. Just like, bam, stunning! We carried that thankfulness through some horizontal rain and 80-knot winds, and it just became fun. You lift your head up from cutting grass or digging in the dirt and are left nearly breathless every time. 'And the beauty, well, it is just nearly unparalleled. 'The remoteness and the harshness of the place is certainly one of its most thrilling qualities… just being there was a miracle,' Taylor says.

The primary role of Island Caretakers is to prevent mother nature, who seems to be in a constant bad mood down that way, from engulfing the lighthouse and buildings, which meant that Jesse and Taylor worked as cleaners, concreters, painters, electricians, whale watchers, fire spotters and weather observers (reporting in for the BOM, at 6am and 9am, every day), as well as each other's chefs. Located in Southwest National Park, a World Heritage Wilderness Area, Maatsuyker and its lighthouse and outbuildings, built in 1891, fall under the protection of Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service.

Lighthouse keeper vacancies