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  The Tiri lighthouse is one of only a few surviving lighthouse settlements in New Zealand, and the only one easily accessible to the public. Built in 1864, the lighthouse is also one of the oldest. It is made of cast iron, pre-fabricated in Pimlico, England and brought out by ship (Queen of the Deep) in sections which were bolted together on site. Over 21m tall and 4.7m in diameter at the base, it flashes every 15 seconds. Was originally painted red.The Tiri light incorporated the most modern lantern design and lamp of its period and it has been regularly upgraded as new energy sources and technologies were adopted. Originally fuelled by Colsa oil (made from rape seed), it was converted in 1880 to paraffin. In 1926, an automatic acetylene light was installed and the lighthouse staff reduced to two but a watched light was reinstated in 1949 when work began on the electrification of the island. In 1965, a xenon gas lamp, equivalent to 11 million candlepower, and reputed to be the brightest light in the Southern Hemisphere, was fitted. It was replaced in 1984 by a less powerful quartz iodine light because of problems in obtaining replacement bulbs. In the same year, the light was partially automated and the lighthouse de-manned. In 1990, the light was converted to solar power and was fully automated. Two small cottages for the lighthouse keepers were built in 1864 but replaced with larger houses in 1918. The new houses were standard Marine Department design first used for the Cape Brett lighthouse in 1908. They are still used, with some alterations, one by the Conservation Ranger and the other by volunteers and visitors. Other buildings were progressively added to the complex as technology advanced and requirements changed. Many of these have survived. 
In 1898, a Slaughter's Cotton Powder fog station with foghorn and gun cotton store was built on the eastern cliffs. The apparatus involved a descending counterweight and a circular revolving steel plate carrying individual steel encased cartridges which were detonated to produce an explosion up to 7 miles away. The gun cotton store and remains of the mechanism still survive.A concrete building south east of the lighthouse contains the 1935 diaphonic foghorn which replaced the gun cotton foghorn. It was operated by a simple compressed air system. Diesel motors ran a compressor which filled a boiler with a reservoir volume of high pressure air. This was released through a number of valves operated by a rotating eccentric cam. Each time the cam lifted the valve, a measured volume of air would pass through the diaphone. The diaphonic foghorn was replaced, in turn, by an electronic version (1984), now also obsolete. The signal station immediately to the east of the lighthouse was built in 1912 for the Auckland Harbour Board, its purpose to signal ships approaching the port to see if they needed a pilot. A workshop and engine house to the north of the lighthouse dates from the 1950's. The 1864 lighthouse, a Category 1 Registered Historic Place, is administered by the Maritime Safety Authority, but the remaining buildings are the responsibility of the Department of Conservation. The last lighthouse keeper and his wife, who stayed on as conservation officers when the lighthouse was automated, managed the island up until their retirement in June 2006. It is currently managed by the resident rangers on the island.
The island was occupied by the Ministry of Defence between 1940 and 1945 as part of the coastal defence network guarding Auckland Harbour and its approaches. A Port War Signal was initially based near the lighthouse but later shifted to the centre of the island (1942). Remnants of these structures still survive. Photography by Sally Green (top left, bottom right) and Gael Arnold (top right - mammatus clouds during storm) |
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