Puysegur Point

Puysegur Point is located in the far southwest of the South Island of New Zealand.[1] It lies within Fiordland National Park on the southern head of Preservation Inlet. It lies 145 kilometres (90 mi) west-northwest of Invercargill. It is the site of a lighthouse station now automated but for many years the home of three married permanent lighthouse keepers. The original wooden lighthouse was burnt down in 1943 by a man who had recently left a psychiatric hospital and made his way down to Coal Island across the fjord from the lighthouse. He decided the light was a deliberate plot to keep him awake at night by shining in his window so took matters into his own hands. He held all the keepers hostage with a rifle, smashed the radio telephone and set fire to the lighthouse. The concrete lighthouse which replaced it has now in turn been replaced by two automated beacons.

Puysegar Point & Lighthouse – from the North

Puysegur Point

A large earthquake[2] in this region on 15 July 2009 pushed Puysegur Point closer to Australia by 30 centimetres (12 in).[3] Humpback whales pass the point during annual migrations.[4]

Puysegur Point and the foundations of the old Lighthouse

References
  1. "Place name detail: Puysegur Point". New Zealand Gazetteer. Land Information New Zealand. Retrieved 28 March 2009.
  2. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 12 August 2009. Retrieved 31 May 2014.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link), retrieved 24 August 2009
  3. Ramnarayan, Abhinav (22 July 2009). "Earthquake brings New Zealand closer to Australia". The Guardian. Retrieved 4 August 2020.
  4. Dawbin, H. W. (1995) The Migrations of Humpback Whales which Pass the New Zealand Coast. Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New Zealand. Volume 84, 1956–57. pp.147–196. Department of Zoology, Victoria University College, Wellington. National Library of New Zealand. Retrieved on 9 July 2014


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