The Marengo Beacon
Beacon History
The Marengo Beacon was built as an aid to navigation in 1858 and lies 300 metres south of Point Haley, on the coast near the start of the Great Ocean Walk.
A second back beacon, lies 200 metres inland. Both beacons had a surmounted ball which, when viewed from the sea, formed a line-of-sight that pointed to the Henty Reef, a submerged reef nearly 3 kilometres offshore, where breaking waves are visible in rough seas at low tides.
The most shallow, seaward end of Henty Reef – where the depth of water at low tide is about 3 metres – is marked on navigation charts by the intersection of two lines, one drawn through the beacons on Point Haley, the other through the beacons on Cape Bunbury, Apollo Bay. The Cape Bunbury beacons have since been removed.
The beacons were constructed soon after two ships were wrecked in quick succession on Haley Reef, an exposed reef 100 metres offshore of Marengo. This reef, also known as the ‘Little Henty Reefs’, is now a Protected Marine Area.
On 30 November 1857, the Annie was wrecked after it struck Haley Reef and on 25 March 1858, the Grange struck the submerged offshore Henty Reef in a gale, before being blown inshore to be wrecked on Haley Reef. Local settlers quickly answered the call of shipwreck survivors, and soon after an order was given by the Office of Ports and Harbours, Williamstown, to construct the four beacons as an aid to navigation.
The timber for the beacons was believed to have been sourced locally by early settlers and construction was completed less than two months after the wreck of the Grange, thereby alerting mariners to the danger of the two offshore reefs and preventing similar catastrophes from occurring in the future. The beacons were listed in the Government Gazette on 14 May 1858.
With the recent installation of new electronic reef markers, the Marengo Beacon was considered redundant as an aid to navigation and removed by council staff in the summer of 2019-20. Following subsequent calls by local residents to reinstate this historic landmark feature, Council undertook to replace the beacon using some of the original timber and a modified ball on top, to avoid confusion with the original beacon.
Geology, Palaeontology and Shore Life
The Otway Ranges and coastline has many natural features worthy of World Heritage status and recognition and protection of our early European and Aboriginal history are a part of that heritage.
The Marengo beacon stands on a small headland of rocky coast, providing a unique vantage point over 110 million-year-old Early Cretaceous, non-marine, sedimentary rock that formed when the Australian continent was separating from Gondwana. Directly below the beacon, alternating layers of mudstone, sandstone and siltstone, reveal an ancient freshwater river landscape with a backwater environment where dinosaurs once roamed. The wide shore platform includes the footprints of an Ankylosaur, a heavy-bodied, quadrupedal, plant-eating dinosaur; the footprints of meat-eating Theropods, and fossil bones of dinosaurs and reptiles.
The intertidal zone is rich in marine life species and in the subtidal zone is a range of algae species, including an assemblage of temperature sensitive Giant Kelp Macrocystis pyrifera. The submerged offshore Henty Reef is believed to have been a relic island, like the inshore Hayley Reef, that was planed off at sea level during the current or previous sea level cycles. The reef is covered in Bull Kelp Durvillaea potatorum, which is repeatedly being dislodged by storms, usually with a layer of sedimentary rock attached to the holdfast. Over time, this results in vertical erosion of the reef which has helped reduce the reef to its current level.
The Marengo Beacon is an historical aid to navigation and a reminder of our rich maritime heritage. It also serves to highlight the geological, as well as palaeontological and shore life features, of our unique Otway’s coast.
Written by Tim Godfrey