Three lights, two ranges.

[Kevin vk2ce]

In the center of the bay you see the ferry to Tasmania, a red ship. South West of that is Queenscliffe which is just near the Rip. There are three lights which are front range in conjunction with the black lighthouse as the rear. A skipper can tell by lining up one or other of the front lights with the black light whether he is in the middle, the right or the left side of the entrance to the rip. Channel markers take over from there on.

The only ship allowed to enter or leave the port without the approval of the radio operator at Point Lonsdale light, is the ferry. Point lonsdale is just near Queenscliffe.
See my web site:-
http://lighthouses.net.au/lights/ptlonsdale.htm

[island]

Thanks Kevin. This is an interesting use of range lights.

The rip looks like a bit of a challenge. How much tidal current would one encounter there?

(On the Pt Lonsdale page, I could not open the link for: "The full story and more photos can be found here." )

[Kevin vk2ce]

Looks like that link is dead.
The tidal variance is around 6 feet so you have water coming out of Port Philip bay at a fair pace and running into the water in Bass Strait which can get very rough as the sea bed is only 200 meters deep. The Southern Ocean enters it from the West and the Tasman sea from the East and they meet in the middle.

A few weeks ago the ferry, whcih is no small ship got all the way across to Tasmania and had to turn back because of 10 meter waves it could not safely enter the river mouth. The trip across takes 10 hours. Bass Strait is reputed to be one of the most dangerous stretches of water in the world. I have done 4 crossings now and had a bathtub ride each time but it still gets pretty hairy going thru the rip.

[island]

Thank you , Kevin.

From searching I found another somewhat different range light configuration. This is Leards Range Front & Palmers Range Rear at Victoria, Prince Edwards Island. One light structure contains both the front light for one range and the rear light for another.

http://www.lhdigest.com/database/unique ... value=1293