Scott gets his dream job as a lighthouse keeper on an Australian island

A Scottish man has found his “dream job” as a lighthouse keeper on a remote Australian island.

When the former lighthouse keeper decided to retire after 25 years at Gabor Island on the Victorian coast, 42-year-old Sandy Duthie jumped at the chance.

Sandy, from Aberdeenshire, visited Australia with his partner five years ago and has never left. When he arrived at Lighthouse Island, he realized he wanted to one day be a part of the lighthouse’s history.

His job as a lighthouse keeper and island manager means he now spends six months a year there – one month on and one off – in the company of a colony of penguins.

Sandy was from Durris Kirkton, near Bankory.

Before becoming an arborist, he studied ecology at the University of Aberdeen.

In 2019 he traveled to Mallacoota with his partner Brodie Gaudion to meet her family for the first time and ended up staying.

He first came to Gabo Island two years ago with the dream of eventually becoming its guardian.

The Gabo Lighthouse itself is over 160 years old.

Former goalkeeper Leo op den Brouw, 70, has spent every two months alone on the island for the past 25 years.

The position opened up earlier this year when he decided to return to the mainland to live with his family, and Sandy took the job with the government organization Parks Victoria.

He and another goalkeeper – now in his 16th year there – alternate one month and the next.

Sandy and his beard — which he had grown for years and thought might help in interviews — started his new job back in March.

He travels to and from the island by renting a boat.

It takes about 30 minutes, weather permitting – it’s often unsettled – and there are often whales nearby.

Sandy first came to Gabo Island when he came here for a two-week weeding job.

“It feels like home, it feels very much like the north-east of Scotland,” he explains.

“The foliage was so lush and the granite was unlike anywhere else I’d seen in Australia. I fell in love with this place immediately.

“Then I asked the janitor how he got the job and he told me it was just luck, being in the right place and the right time. He has since retired and I applied for the job – right place, Right time.

“This job doesn’t come around very often.”

He described Gabo Island as small but with “amazing” wildlife.

“We have little penguins — a whole bunch of them,” he said.

“We have whales, sea eagles and seals. Whales are passing by at the moment.

“I saw about 15 or 16 today. Sometimes there are 30 or 40 a day.”

Sandy said that work itself is more like a way of life.

“You have to really pace yourself with what you’re going to do and not have too many expectations or plans, because Gabor Island has a way of twisting any of your plans.

“You have to be able to solve problems. Our tasks range from watching the weather every six hours to cleaning public toilets, painting everything – we have 80 percent humidity, salty air, so everything rusts and corrodes, all of that All need care.

“The house requires a lot of ongoing maintenance.

“You just have to expect the unexpected.”

He said the job was ideal for him, but it also had its challenges.

“There’s enough variation to keep your brain busy,” says Sandy.

“I enjoy my own company. I also enjoy the company of others. My partner comes to visit.

“Don’t get me wrong, some days can seem like a prison.

“The former administrator described it as Alcatraz Rock. If you were here, you couldn’t leave except to go to family events. Sometimes we would be stuck here for days on end because of the weather.

“But at the same time, you can basically write your own script for the day and fulfill your responsibilities.

“It can be difficult when the phone signal goes out, but I don’t miss anything.

If no ships come, supplies could be in short supply, he said.

“But on the other hand, when I came back to the mainland, I found that I had to be very careful around crowds.

“If you’ve been here by yourself for a few weeks and you haven’t seen another face, it can be very scary to go to a bar or an event.”

He also discovered that Scotland had other connections to Gabo Island.

“The pink granite on Gabo is very hard compared to other Australian granites,” Sandy explains.

“The documents I found show that the people responsible for building the lighthouse in 1859 were actually looking for Scottish stonemasons, specifically those who had worked at Aberdeen and Peterhead lighthouses as they were used to working with such hard materials. .

“Unfortunately, we don’t know much about who built the lighthouse.

“There is a book about all the carers who have been on the island since 1859, many of whom are Scots – people from the Highlands and Islands, Perth, Edinburgh, Glasgow and the North East.

“The connection to Scotland here is incredible.

“This is 100% a dream job. It’s perfect for me.