- Softcover
- Used
Seller: Book Grocer, Tullamarine, VIC, AustraliaBook Grocer
AbeBooks seller since October 15, 2025
Condition: Used
£ 5.48
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Add to basketItem description from seller
, . NB: This is a secondhand book in very good condition. See our FAQs for more information. Please note that the jacket image is indicative only. A description of our secondhand books is not always available. Please contact us if you have a question about this title. Author: John Cook Format: Paperback / softback Number of Pages: 352 In Tasmania, John Cook is known as: 'The Keeper of the Flame'. John's renowned as one of the last of the "kerosene keepers": he spent a good part of his 26-year career in Tasmanian lighthouses tending kerosene, not electrical, lamps. He joined the lighthouse service in 1969, after a spell in the merchant marine. Far from reviling work on isolated islands such as Tasman and Maatsuyker, Australia's southernmost lighthouse, he discovered that he loved the solitude and delighted in the sense of purpose that light keeping gave him. He did two stints on Tasman, in 1969-71 and 1977, and was the head keeper on Maatsuyker for eight years. Tasman's kerosene light was a pressure lamp fuelled by two big bottles that had to be pumped up to 75 pounds per square inch (about 516 kilopascals): "It was the equivalent of pumping up a tyre every 20 minutes," John says. "Then you had to wind up the weights - they went down the tower and turned the prism around like a big clockwork. If the weights went all the way to the bottom, the light would stop. "The main thing was that 365 nights of the year you sat in that tower, 100 feet up, and you had to stay awake," John says of Tasman. "If you fell asleep the light would stop and then you were in trouble." Keepers took watches around the clock, in a system similar to that on a ship. Day watches weren't a chance to slack off: standing orders required the watchkeeper to look seawards at least every half-hour and to log sightings of any vessels, and their course, in the area. "But the main thing was there was always maintenance to do," John says. "Because Mother Nature was your boss. She'd blow gutters off, that sort of thing - she was always stickin' her bib in, and you were repairin' it." Tasman keepers also ran a herd of up to 500 sheep. They didn't have a freezer, so they'd kill and dress a sheep every fortnight. John supplemented his bulk stores, delivered every three months by the lighthouse supply vessel, with extras brought on the bi-monthly mail boat, and by keeping chooks, ducks and turkeys. "I never ran out of things to do," he says. "In my free time I used to do correspondence courses - I did navigation, diesel mechanics, business management and accounting." In 1977, keepers left the Tasman quarters forever. "I've got such strong memories of those places with people in them, and kids' voices rattlin' around," John says. "It breaks my heart to think about those places sittin' out there empty with no lights on." Secondhand, Paperback / softback Secondhand, Paperback / softback.…
Seller Inventory # 9781760875381-SECONDHAND
- Title
- The Last Lighthouse Keeper
- Author
- Cook, John; Bauer, Jon
- Publisher
- Allen & Unwin
- Publication year
- 2021
- Binding
- Soft cover
- Language
- English
- ISBN 10
- 1760875384
- ISBN 13
- 9781760875381
In Tasmania, John Cook is known as 'The Keeper of the Flame'. As one of Australia's longest-serving lighthouse keepers, John spent 26 years tending Tasmania's well-known kerosene 'lights' at Tasman Island, Maatsuyker Island and Bruny Island.
From sleepless nights keeping the lights alive, battling the wind and sea as they ripped at gutters and flooded stores, raising a joey, tending sheep and keeping ducks and chickens, the life of a keeper was one of unexpected joy and heartbreak. But for John, nothing was more heartbreaking than the introduction of electric lights, and the lighthouses that were left empty forever.
Evocatively told, The Last Lighthouse Keeper is a love story between a man and a dying way of life, as well as a celebration of wilderness and solitude.
"Synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
About the Author
John Cook moved from the UK to Tasmania as a boy with his mother at the outbreak of World War II. John grew up loving the natural environment and being practical. After serving in the Australian Navy, being a walking-track maintenance worker, operating a mobile x-ray health scanning unit and running service stations, John joined the Australian Lighthouse Service in 1968. He was a lightkeeper and later head keeper at various Tasmanian lights, notably Eddystone Point, Tasman Island, Maatsuyker Island and Bruny Island, until 1993. John was also an honorary National Park Ranger.
Jon Bauer was born and raised in the UK, before moving to Australia in 2001 where he lived for thirteen happy years. He now lives in the UK again where he works as a somatic psychotherapist, as well as continuing to write short and long fiction. His novel Rocks in the Belly was longlisted for the Miles Franklin Award, won Best Debut in the Indies, was shortlisted for the Dublin IMPAC, broadcast on ABC National and published in eight countries. He has never worked in a lighthouse but he does have a lot of woolly jumpers, experience with extremes of wilderness and solitude, and shaves only sporadically. He is working on a new novel.
"About the title" may belong to another edition of this title.
Book Grocer
Tullamarine, VIC, Australia
AbeBooks seller since October 15, 2025
Shipping rates from Australia to U.S.A.
| Item | 15 to 25 business days | 7 to 14 business days |
|---|---|---|
| First item | £ 22.40 | £ 37.33 |
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Book Grocer - Australia's best bargain bookstore. We stock over 100,000 titles, all discounted and ready to ship from our Melbourne warehouse. We buy and sell second hand books. Book Grocer is Australian and family-owned since 2000.
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Fiction, History, Children's - all categoriesSeller's business information
Castlebooks Pty Ltd
5/101 Keilor Park Drive
Tullamarine, VIC Australia 3043
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