17 lighthouses catalogued on the Victoria coast.
Victoria's short coastline — just 1,868 kilometres — is disproportionately rich in lighthouse history. Port Phillip Heads, the entrance to Melbourne, was one of the most treacherous stretches of water in the colonies, and the lights at Queenscliff, Point Lonsdale, Cape Otway and Wilsons Promontory were built to keep the steady flow of shipping out of the rocks. The 1850s gold rush brought engineers and money; most of Victoria's iconic lights date to that period.