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Story: Wellington places

Pencarrow lighthouse

Pencarrow lighthouse

After several ships foundered at the entrance of Wellington Harbour, the Wellington provincial government built New Zealand’s first permanent lighthouse above Pencarrow Head. Made of cast iron, and assembled on site, its light first shone on 1 January 1859. The keeper was Mary Jane Bennett, New Zealand’s only woman lighthouse keeper. Because fog sometimes hid the beam, a second, sea-level lighthouse was built in 1906. The shed halfway down the hillside in this 1936 view was used to operate the fog signal.

Using this item

Alexander Turnbull Library

Reference: 1/2-035193; F

Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

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How to cite this page

Chris Maclean, Wellington places – Eastern ranges, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/13495/pencarrow-lighthouse (accessed 4 June 2026).

Story by Chris Maclean, published 3 March 2009, updated 1 March 2016.

Comments

Ann Shirley Mawson
23 April 2020
I lived with my parents Jim and Shirley Smith at Pencarrow Ligthouse in 1949/1950. The princpal keeper was Harold Young, and we were serviced by the Lighthouse tender the Enterprise, master was Brian Pickering. We had two horses that were used to go into Eastbourne to get the mail and some small goods..I have some photos in my fathers photo album of when we lived there.