GABO ISLAND
Victoria’s wild granite island in the Tasman Sea.
A Monument of Solid Pink Granite
Standing 47 metres tall above the pounding swells of the Tasman Sea, Gabo Island Lighthouse is Victoria’s second-tallest lighthouse and the only one in Australia constructed from local pink granite.
Carved directly from the granite cliffs at the northern end of the island between 1859 and 1862, each massive block was cut, dressed, and hauled by hand. The tower replaced a temporary wooden light built after the catastrophic 1853 wreck of the passenger steamship SS Monumental City.
Today, its optic still flashes every twenty seconds across the Tasman Sea, while the surrounding keepers’ quarters preserve colonial maritime history.
Getting to Gabo Island
Gabo sits 14 kilometres south-east of Mallacoota and only a few hundred metres across a tidal channel from the mainland, yet access requires careful planning around maritime weather.
Gabo Island Airstrip
GEN-PANO-009The grass strip on the island. Coastal scrub, a green runway and the lighthouse standing on the granite point.
By Light Aircraft
Charter flights depart from Mallacoota Airport, landing on Gabo Island’s grass airstrip. The 10-minute flight provides breathtaking aerial views of the pink granite coastline, sand spits, and the Howe Range.
Flight Information →By Boat Transfer
Licensed local boat operators offer passenger transfers from Mallacoota across the bar to Santa Barbara Bay jetty. Departures are strictly weather-dependent and require calm sea conditions.
Boat Operators & Harbours →Weather & Safety
Tasman Sea weather changes rapidly. Visitors must carry emergency supplies, warm windproof layers, and adhere to strict wildlife conservation guidelines regarding penguin burrows.
Safety Guidelines →Wildlife of the Tasman Sea & Southern Ocean
A sanctuary for seabirds, marine mammals, and resilient salt-marsh flora surrounded by cold oceanic currents.
Little Penguin
Eudyptula minor
Gabo Island supports one of the largest Little Penguin breeding colonies in Victoria, with an estimated population of 20,000 to 35,000 birds returning nightly to ashore after foraging in the Tasman Sea.
Read species profile →Short-tailed Shearwater
Ardenna tenuirostris
Known historically as the muttonbird, hundreds of thousands of shearwaters arrive on Gabo Island in late September after an epic 15,000 km migration from the North Pacific and Arctic waters.
Read species profile →White-bellied Sea-Eagle
Haliaeetus leucogaster
The apex avian predator of Gabo Island, pairs of White-bellied Sea-Eagles patrol the Tasman Sea shoreline and nest in elevated rocky lookouts.
Read species profile →Gabo Island in Three Songs
Written and recorded by Colin Dixon, this musical trilogy captures the spirit, human struggle, and wildlife crossings of Gabo Island.
Everything Swims to Gabo
The Channel & The Wild Crossings
The idea was simple: almost everything seems to find a way across that strip of water between the mainland and the island. Cattle were once swum across, kangaroos and deer have made the crossing, shearwaters return from huge migrations across the Pacific, little penguins come ashore after fishing, fur seals lie out on the rocks, and whales and dolphins pass by offshore.
The Road Home
Tracks Left in Granite & Grass
Gabo has been grazed by cattle for many decades, and the old paths through the tussock and scrub became part of the landscape. Those same paths are now used by wildlife as well. It is a song about the tracks left behind and the way one generation of animals, people, and work leaves something useful for the next.
The Stone Remembers
The Granite Tower & The Men Who Built It
After the tragic wreck of the steamship Monumental City near Tullaberga Island in 1853, a temporary wooden light was erected, but the permanent granite lighthouse came later. Work on the tower began in the early 1860s, and the new light was first lit in 1862. The builder, Robert Huckson, lost a considerable amount of money on the contract and went bankrupt, while the men doing the work dealt with poor provisions, hard conditions, and relentless Tasman Sea weather.
Originally published on coota.au. Discover the instruments, full lyrics, and background in our Three Songs Editorial Feature →
Panoramic Visions of Gabo
Explore the authentic 3:1 cinematic panoramas of Gabo Island’s granite shores, crystal harbours, and historic station.
Gabo Harbour & Jetty
GEN-PANO-016The island landing. A granite breakwater, a white shed on the jetty and clear water in Santa Barbara Bay.
Gabo Lighthouse from the Water
GEN-PANO-013The granite tower from the sea. Pink rock, keepers’ cottages and a sky of evening colour on Gabo Island.
The People Who Lived on Gabo
For more than 130 years, head keepers, assistants, stonemasons, and whole families endured howling gales and isolation to keep the light burning.
Children were raised among the penguin colonies, cattle were swum across from the mainland, and telegraph operators sent vital distress signals through the 1888 submarine cable.
Our dedicated historical archive preserves the records, ledgers, and stories of the men and women who shaped Gabo Island.
“People disappear, records get lost, names fade from ledgers, but the stone remains. Every block in that lighthouse was shaped and placed by somebody, and more than 160 years later their work is still standing above the sea.”— From The Stone Remembers