After some absolutely amazing adventures throughout the school holidays (that I am yet to finish the blogs on) we had an adventure that didn’t quite work out the way we had hoped. I know my father used to take my brother and I to Cape Liptrap many times during our childhood, but it feels so long ago that I hate to admit it but I really couldn’t remember the lighthouse at all. With the school holidays quickly coming to an end I really wanted to revisit Cape Liptrap before we returned to school/work. I did check the weather forecast and it did say that the weather was not to be fabulous today, but me being usual me I thought how often is it correct anyway, so off we went.
Driving down Bald Hill Road, Tarwin Lower excitement swept across the car as we set our eyes on these magnificent giants.
The Bald Hill Wind Farm comprises of 52 wind turbines that are spread out over 1,750ha and are located on either side of the road. The land beneath the turbines is lush and green and had some very happy looking cows taking advantage of it.
Wind turbines are most certainly either loved or hated. I am on team love when it comes to them! These particular turbines stand at 85 metres and rotor diameter is 92.5 metres, they are just absolutely massive. What on earth is the use of them you say, well they are clean power generators and have and annual net output of 380,000 MWh. This is enough to power approximately 62,000 homes, now that is a lot of power.
The make a distinctive ‘whooshing‘ noise and I can understand people living right underneath them would be annoyed by the noise some farmers even say it puts their cattle off. I personally have not done the research to weigh in on the argument of are these turbines good or evil, but you may have guessed that from a non technical viewpoint I love them. They fascinate me every time I see them. I like the Toora Wind Farm also. You can get closer to the ones there and have a really good look.
So far our adventure has sounded pretty amazing (well that’s my thoughts anyway), when are things going to go awry you ask? You don’t have to wait long for that answer things went south as soon as we left the turbines. The wind picked up, the sky turned a dark grey and soon it began to rain. I was still feeling optimistic and felt we had come this far why turn back when we are so close to our destination. We arrived and the rain was steady, however not pouring down we decided to wait a while and see if it cleared. It had appeared to ease and we decided to make a move to Cape Liptrap Lighthouse itself, I had read up on it and found it was not a long walk to reach. We took our umbrella, that was of no use the wind snapped its ribs pretty quickly.
Once we arrived I was pleased to be treated by a delightful 9.75 metre lighthouse. The original Cape Liptrap Lighthouse was first constructed in 1913 and stood at a mere 2.1 metres. The current standing lighthouse was constructed in 1951. We really didn’t get a good look at it despite the fact you can of course walk right up and touch it if you please, the weather was just too harsh. I did have a quick look out at Bass Strait and my goodness it was choppy to say the least, I certainly wouldn’t have wanted to be down there in it. In saying that we were not much drier where we were. Looking back at what photos I took at great haste it turns out we were at the Lighthouse for all of one minute and back to the shelter of the car in three minutes. As we ran back to the car hail pelted our faces and I feared I was never going to be forgiven for my choice of todays activities. Thankfully once home, showered and fed I have been told that it was ‘pretty fun’. I cannot wait until summer to go back and really explore this area and investigate the lighthouse further.
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