Mersey Bluff Lighthouse – Devonport’s Unique Lighthouse

I recently moved to Tasmania for family reasons and am currently, at least for the first few months, staying in the North-West of this beautiful state. I don’t know the area well enough yet to know where all the great landscape photography locations are that are worth grabbing my camera and checking out. But I am certainly working on rectifying that! 😀

Thankfully, one way of finding great photography locations, other than this website – cheeky plug, is by following certain Instagram accounts. It was there that I saw a stunning image of Mersey Bluff Lighthouse at Devonport, which made me want to check it out!

This meant that five days into my interstate relocation to the Apple Aisle, I woke up early and headed to this lighthouse to photograph the sunrise. This made Mersey Bluff Lighthouse the first Tasmanian photography location I visited in my new home state. Since then, I have also been back to photograph sunset as it is a great dual, sunrise and sunset, photography spot.

I also have some recent history in photographing lighthouses in NSW. So Mersey Bluff Lighthouse was the perfect spot for me to photograph as a new Tasmanian, and this lighthouse certainly didn’t disappoint! 😀

That said, this part of Tasmania isn’t completely foreign to me. I have holidayed here before and have been lucky enough to visit a few places like Guide Falls and the Dove Lake Boatshed at Cradle Mountain. All of which can be found in the North-West of Tasmania.

This photo of Mersey Bluff Lighthouse was taken from the space provided at the top of Mersey Viewing Point. This is a great spot that, I am guessing, the Devonport Council has constructed. I shot as wide as my lens would allow me to try and capture as much of the scene as possible, and I still feel like it was just not wide enough. But a great spot and one you should certainly check out if photographing this lighthouse at the end of the day. (HDR image, Nikon D750, 16mm | Sunset | February 2023)

How to photograph Mersey Bluff Lighthouse

Mersey Bluff Lighthouse has bright red and white stripes that run the length of the lighthouse, although only on one side. These red and white lines remind me of Hornby Lighthouse, a popular lighthouse and photography location near Sydney. Mersey Bluff Lighthouse also has cute little windows, adding a little more charm to an already charismatic building.

One thing I liked about photographing Mersey Bluff Lighthouse was that several compositions are available to you. This might be dictated by the time of day you visit and the sun’s position.

To the left and behind the Mersey Bluff Lighthouse

If you visit Mersey Bluff Lighthouse for sunrise, you will be looking to set up your tripod and camera to the left of the lighthouse. This way, you will have the sun rising over the port at Devonport and can photograph the lighthouse with the sun behind it.

The most significant advantage to this side is that you see all the red and white stripes on the lighthouse, which looks fantastic. And let’s be honest; these strips are probably what is going to draw you to photograph Mersey Bluff Lighthouse in the first place.

The other benefits of this area are that you can explore the promontory. Here, there are many different rocks, grasses and shrubs that jut out of the landscape and can fill the foreground of your photos with interesting textures and details.

I wouldn’t consider this area dangerous, but you are near the edge of the peninsula, and some sections drop off suddenly. So please be careful of your footing.

If you continue moving away from the lighthouse on the left-hand side, there are clearings in and amongst the trees and shrubs that you can further explore with your camera, looking for an interesting composition.

To the right and in front of Mersey Bluff Lighthouse

To the right and in front of Mersey Bluff Lighthouse are some nice spots you can explore with your camera.

In particular, if you leave the car park and head just to the right, you will quickly see a path trailing off down the hill. After a short descent along this route and down some stairs, you will see, swinging around to the right, a cement platform known as Mersey Viewing Point. This viewing point provides a great spot to photograph back up the side of the headland and towards Mersey Bluff Lighthouse.

From this vantage point, you also get a great view of the exposed rocks, which, after some research, are Jurassic dolerite. These rocks remind me somewhat of the Bay of Fires, with sections of the rock marked in bright orange colours. It looks fantastic! 🤩

I would have liked to have incorporated more of the stairs that lead back up the headland in my photo. Unfortunately, as soon as you leave Mersey Viewing Point, the ground does dip substantially, and you lose most of your view of the lighthouse.

Moving back up the stairs towards the lighthouse, there are one or two clearings just to the right of the path that can provide you with further opportunities to capture Mersey Bluff Lighthouse from a different angle. I didn’t push in too deep here, but it could be worth exploring further if you think a good photo opportunity might be found.

In front of the lighthouse is also nice, depending on the type of photo that you are after. There is a path leading up to the lighthouse, but otherwise, there isn’t much that I found you could work into your composition.

Most of the red vertical stripes painted on the lighthouse are also not visible from the front.

I took a quick iPhone photo of Mersey Viewing Point just down from the lighthouse. Hopefully, this gives you a little bit of an idea of what this spot offers prior to arriving there. I just so happened to time it well enough to have captured the large ferry, the Spirit of Tasmania, in the background as it was leaving Devonport. (iPhone 12 photo)

The best time to photograph Mersey Bluff Lighthouse

Sunrise or Sunset, it doesn’t matter

We have already touched on this, but the best time to visit Mersey Bluff Lighthouse with the hope of capturing a cracking lighthouse photo is either sunrise or sunset. This provides you with some flexibility if you are travelling to the North-West of Tasmania.

If you don’t have the time to photograph Mersey Bluff Lighthouse at sunrise and sunset and are trying to decide on one or the other, look over the images in this article and others you might find online. By doing this, you can see what compositions you most like. This could then help you know if you want to be on the right or left of the lighthouse and what time of the day this would then require you to be there.

Remember, Left = Sunrise & Right = Sunset.

However, it would be for sunrise if I had to pick when I would next look to return with my camera to this great spot. 🙂

Beware of the wind!

The most significant element that might affect ‘when’ you decide to visit Mersey Bluff Lighthouse with your camera could be the wind.

This area is known for strong winds which blow off the Bass Straight and would make trying to capture a sharp image of the lighthouse near impossible. Obviously, the lighthouse isn’t going to be moving, but there are many small and large trees, shrubs and grasses scattered in and around this area.

There is a huge tree there, I am not sure of the type, but you can see the effects the wind has had in shaping it. You will certainly know it when you see it, and I have pointed it out in the comments of one of my photos of Mersey Bluff Lighthouse that you can see in this guide. It’s pretty incredible! 😲

An app that I find helpful when checking what the wind conditions might be doing at a particular location and at a specific time is Seabreeze. You might already have an app you refer to, but if not, it is worth consulting with an app like this before grabbing your camera and heading out to any location.

Travelling to Mersey Bluff Lighthouse

Mersey Bluff Lighthouse can be found in the port-side town of Devonport in the North-West of Tasmania. If you were travelling to Mersey Bluff Lighthouse from Launceston, arriving would take approximately 1 hour and 15 minutes. Travelling up from Hobart would take you around 3 hours and 30 minutes.

The location itself is also very accessible for anyone wanting to visit. You can drive straight up to the car park there, with Mersey Bluff Lighthouse only a short easy walk away.

If you have just gotten off the Spirt of Tasmania or have some time before you board, this could be a nice spot to check out. I can also recommend the Bluff Cafe, which is only a few minutes’ drive from the lighthouse. This is a lovely cafe to grab some brekky and a coffee.

The history of Mersey Bluff Lighthouse

Mersey Bluff Lighthouse was built back in 1889 and is situated on the western side of the Mersey River in Tasmania, just north of the port of Devonport. It sounds like the lighthouse’s construction couldn’t have come soon enough and stopped a torrid run of shipwrecks in the area.

I found two points of particular interest when looking into the history of Mersey Bluff Lighthouse.

1. This might sound silly to those in the know, but I didn’t realise that the red stripes actually play a role other than looking aesthetically pleasing. Apparently, the vertical red lines are the lighthouse’s ‘day markings’. Day markings, I believe, are uncommon on Australian lighthouses, which hopefully excuses my ignorance of this fact.
2. The original construction of this lighthouse also included two brick houses, a signal shed, a tide house and a flagpole. However, the dwellings were demolished in 1958 and 1961 because the lighthouse hadn’t needed to be manned for several years.

Visit the Lighthouses of Australia website for more great information on the history of Mersey Bluff Lighthouse and many others.

This photo of Mersey Bluff Lighthouse was taken at sunrise and is some distance from the building on the left-hand side. I actually glimpsed this composition as I headed back towards the lighthouse after having been for a walk to explore the area better. In this guide, I mentioned the large tree that has been warped by the constant buffering of strong winds. That particular tree is the one that you can see in the top right of this image. (HDR photo, Nikon D750, 35mm | Sunrise | January 2023)

My final thoughts

Out of 10, I would rate Mersey Bluff Lighthouse an 8 as a landscape photography location.

I enjoyed photographing this lighthouse and would happily return to photograph it again at either sunrise or sunset. It is a beautiful Tasmanian lighthouse and a very easy spot to get to.

The distinctive red stripes that run around a portion of the lighthouse are unique and give this coastal building some character. It is certainly what drew me to want to photograph Mersey Bluff Lighthouse.

I hope that you have found this photography location review helpful. Please share it with others who might also benefit from the information on this page. And if you happen to photograph this lighthouse after reading this article, I would love for you to let me know. You can do this either via my Instagram or Facebook accounts.

Now grab your camera, get outside and have fun!

Enjoy
Rob Potter