Building Green Cape Lighthouse and The Eden Post Office
Aspinall's longest project was the partial building of the Green Cape Lighthouse on Green Cape, at the northern tip of Disaster Bay, south of Eden. The Eden Killer Whale Museum and Historical Society has information concerning this project and the suicide of Aspinall. The precinct of the lighthouse is now a historic tourist site.
Building the lighthouse started in the late 1870s, with the construction of a jetty and storehouse at Bittangabee Bay. Aspinall then spent five months building a seven-kilometre wooden tramway from Bittangabee Bay to Green Cape. Soon, he found that the soil and rock were unsuitable for the foundations of such a heavy structure. The foundations had to be made much deeper than he had expected. He also experienced difficulties with his hired labourers. Building the lighthouse took almost 3 years, a period much longer than he had anticipated. The construction drained him financially and physically. It became necessary for him to accept other contracts elsewhere during the period of construction. Then his health began to fail. At times, Aspinall was forced to spend time in Pambula Hospital. He committed suicide in Eden in 1903. He is buried in the Eden Cemetery. The Eden newspapers contained lengthy articles about his death.
Graphic details from the period are still held by the museum. His creditors completed the lighthouse.
In the late 1880s, Aspinall also constructed the Post Office at Eden. It was officially opened in 1891. The Post Office is now a historic building. In the early 1890s, Aspinall carried out the renovations of the New Brighton Hotel to adapt the building as a boarding school for his brother, Arthur Aspinall.
Read more about this topic: Albert Aspinall
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