How carrier pigeons were once the backbone of lighthouse families
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MarMarch 2021 at 3:06am
Tiny handwritten notes were rolled up and put in canisters that were attached to pigeons legs.
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Pigeons were once used as communication between Tasmania s remote island lighthouses and the Tasmanian mainland, but occasionally this communication failed. Sometimes tragically.
There are 25 lighthouses on some of the 334 islands surrounding Tasmania, and for many years the only way for keepers to communicate with the Tasmanian mainland was to flag down passing vessels.
That was except for two gale-lashed islands, Tasman and Maatsukyer, where lighthouse keepers had homing pigeons for communication.
Police in Solomon Islands have charged and remanded four Papua New Guineans for illegally entering the country.
The group from the Tasman Islands crossed over by boat to the Malaita Outer Islands on Boxing Day, allegedly to purchase the local homebrew called Kaleve.
Officers of the RSIPF Police Response Team patrolling Solomon Islands side of the common border with PNG.
Photo: RSIPF Media
They were arrested by police and screened by medical authorities in the outer islands before being transported to the capital.
In Honiara, they were further screened then released to police after testing negative for Covid-19.
Three 19-year-olds and a 34-year-old have been charged with illegal entry by a non-citizens under Covid-19 state of public emergency regulation.