Port Nolloth Lighthouse 2

Port Nolloth jetty showing method of loading copper ore

With the development of Port Nolloth as the main port for Namaqualand fishing interests were attracted to it. Two factories were established and trawlers and fishing  boats visited regularly. The navigational aids were upgraded as the port increased in importance.

By the mid 1970s the fishing industry was in recession. Factories suspended operations and boats were withdrawn. The decline in harbour usage led to the withdrawal of the foghorn, probably to the relief of residents. But mariners were still aided by an X band radar responder beacon placed on the platform of the lighthouse tower.

The bottom had fallen out of the copper market just after WWII and the Cape Copper Company withdrew from its mines. It was a blow to a town which depended on these for employment.  Then diamonds came to the rescue, being discovered along the west coast at Alexander Bay and Oranjemund. The copper mines reopened with American backing in 1937.

 Once again Port Nolloth became a thriving little port.

The lighthouse was later automated, the original tower being replaced by an eleven metre high aluminium tower located about fifty metres inland..

Port Nolloth was never a popular station with lighthouse staff even during boom years. Over 700 miles from Cape Town the journey by road was tedious, taking two days with a night stop at Garies or Springbok. Besides the heat and dust the keeper and his family had to face a treacherously narrow winding strip of road between Citrusdal and Klawer. This infamous stretch ran along the eastern bank of the Olifants River. Further disadvantages were a lack of health care in the area as well as schools for keepers' children. Administrative employes echoed the sentiments of a senior officer who once remarked, 'Port Nolloth earns the reputation of being surrounded by indescribable desolation.'

From about 1928 to 1930 the senior lightkeeper was A E (Albert Edward) Hannabus. followed by Orchard and Gardiner, then another spell for A E Hannabus in 1942.* The last lightkeeper, H H van  Pappendorp, left Port Nolloth in 1981 and since then the lighthouse has operated as an unmanned station.

*P J Hannabus writes: He was my grandfather, Albert Edward, and is buried in Port Nolloth cemetery. About 1955/6.

Port Nolloth from the lighthouse in earlier days

Port Nolloth Lighthouse

Port Nolloth Lighthouse ca 1940s
(thanks to P J Hannabus for the photo)

Port Nolloth (originally Robbe Bay) was named after Commander M S Nolloth, R.N., later Rear Admiral.  He undertook surveys along the west coast of SA, investigating bays suited to serve as harbours for the copper mining industry. The Cape Copper Company constructed a timber jetty at Port Nolloth in the late 1860s; this being replaced by a concrete wharf later. The jetty is protected from the open sea by a long reef but access was limited to small craft which had to negotiate a bar and narrow shallow channel. Sailing vessels and steamers had to anchor in the roadstead outside. Copper ore was unloaded and loaded using lighters. At a later stage the  entrance and channel were deepened to permit small coasters to enter the port. Ore had to be conveyed to and from the mines by ox-wagon, which was very slow and the countryside was an arid desert.


The Cape Copper Company had maintained a small primitive light, an ordinary ship's lantern with a wick burner, mounted on a structure composed of secondhand rails. This was probably introduced in the 1870s.  It was known as the Carl Von Schlick beacon. But this did not provide sufficient protection for Port Nolloth shipping, owing to dense fogs which occurred in the area. Strangely, it wasn't until 1905 that masters presented a petition to the Cape Colonial Government  urging the putting up of a permanent coastal light and fog signal at Port Nolloth.
This came to fruition in 1909.

The lighthouse comprised a fifth order, dioptric revolving lens floating on a mercury bath and driven by a spring-activated clockwork mechanism. The light source was a 35 mm petroleum vapour burner. The tower was a cast iron column supported by four heavy steel wire guys anchored in a solid concrete foundation. A ladder linked ground surface to a balcony or working platform at the top of the tower.

In March 1921 the petroleum vapour apparatus was replaced by AGA acetylene gas equipment.  An electric fog signal was installed at the lighthouse in March 1935.

The original rail lighthouse tower.