He was a lightkeeper and later head keeper at various Tasmanian lights, notably Eddystone Point, Tasman Island, Maatsuyker Island and Bruny Island, until 1993. 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. John grew up loving the natural environment and being practical. John Cook moved from the UK to Tasmania as a boy with his mother at the outbreak of World War II. But for John, nothing was more heartbreaking than the introduction of electric lights, and the lighthouses that were left empty forever.Įvocatively 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. 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.įrom 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. In Tasmania, John Cook is known as 'The Keeper of the Flame'. People asked how we stood the isolation and boredom, but in some ways, it was more stimulating to have your senses turned up. I loved the life of the island, because I knew my body was more alive than it was on the mainland. Noble work that can ultimately redeem a lost soul. 'John Cook's ripping life story exposes Tasmania's old kero-fuelled lighthouses: relentless physically and emotionally demanding labour, done under the often cruel vagaries of nature. A story about madness and wilderness, shining a light onto the vicissitudes of love and nature. A beautiful memoir from John Cook, one of Tasmania's last kerosene lighthouse keepers.
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