It is surprising what I have had to put my hand to, I had a lot to learn, but it is the variety of work that keeps it from getting monotonous. During his first year, he described his life on the island to a friend via a letter as ‘having to do everything that wants doing ourselves. William quickly settled into lighthouse life. Image: State Library of Queensland Collection. Although officially unidentified, this family group is likely the Norgates as they were still the keepers on Goods Island until January 1910. But Lizzie pushed through and as William wrote in 1894, ‘She is not very frightened of me and doesn’t cry to go home to her mammy yet ’. As the years passed, frequently William mentions Lizzie’s frail health that seemingly plagued her all her life. She seems to have missed the basics, such as three cups of tea a day rather than the rations which now faced her. Not surprisingly, it seems that William’s wife Lizzie initially struggled to adjust to island life. Despite the hardships of life on a remote outpost, men with a stable family were preferred as lighthouse keepers to single men. The position offered a house and regular income paid by the government and was seen by many as an opportunity to raise their family in relative security. However, once he was married he felt it would a better life for himself and Lizzie in the Lighthouse Service. William Norgate began his life as a keeper in 1893, after spending some years in the coastal pilot service. Goods Island where the Norgates spent 20 years.

Lighthouse keeper life