The timber portion of the jetty was finished last year, and the T end is now being slowly proceeded with, the velocity of the tide rendering the performance of the work very difficult. When complete it will be a great convenience to large steamers, not exceeding 22 feet draught of water, which will be able to lie alongside. The buoys and beacons are well maintained, but there are at present no leading lights for guiding vessels into the port at night-time. This want is often a source of great detention and loss to vessels visiting the port, and many complaints have been made in consequence. Arrangements can easily be made to provide leading lights; and as their maintenance would not require any addition to the present staff, the outlay would be very moderate. The lighthouse and signal station at Goode Island are in a very efficient state, but the tramway for getting oil and stores from the beach (some 1,100 feet in length) is quite past repair, and requires renewal. It is proposed to put iron instead of wooden rails, as being more economical in the end.
At the pilot station everything is in order, no outlay for repairs being necessary. The pilot cutter "Lizzie Jardine" has been relieved by the cutter "Eileen," recently repaired at Cooktown.
When I visited this vessel I found that the heavy weather experienced during the last north-west monsoon had caused her to ride heavily, and that her decks forward had, as a consequence, strained a little. The necessary repairs are being effected by one of the crew, who is a practical shipwright. I propose in future to keep a carpenter in lieu of a seaman on each light-vessel.
The dredged cuttings at the mouth of the Norman were completed on 20th September, 1890, when the necessary beacons and leading lights were erected, and all the works of the Department were in good order until the 24th February last, when the Gulf of Carpentaria was visited by a gale of great violence, accompanied by unusually high seas. Vessels anchored at the Norman Bar dragged considerably, although riding with both anchors down. The damage to the harbour works was very great. All the beacons at the mouths of the Norman and Albert Rivers were displaced, some being destroyed altogether. The lightship parted her cable, and was carried about 900 feet above ordinary high-water mark on the Bynoe beach, and two of the Department's boats were smashed. The dredged cuttings into the Norman River have stood very well, considering the gales and floods experienced during the year, for, except at one place near the second black buoy in the outer cutting, hardly any change is perceptible. At the place indicated, however, the channel for about 400 feet has silted up some 18 inches. Since the weather has become settled no further alteration has taken place. The buoys and beacons have been restored to a state of efficiency, but the lightship is still on shore. As she does not appear to have received much damage, a contract has been let for floating and taking her to Karumba.