North Reef Lighthouse, Australia

A great maxi-card I received as an official this year, plus it is a lighthouse ♥

AU-471392

The maxi-card shows the North Reef Lighthouse in Queensland, which was first constructed in 1878.

Its construction is unique, having a hollow concrete base that both gives it resistance to the shifting nature of the sandbar and serves as a fresh water tank. As such, it is considered one of the major achievement in Australian lighthouse construction.
It is also notable in that due to the harsh conditions and remote location, only bachelors were allowed to serve as lighthouse keepers. (bachelors as in 'unmarried men' in this context). Does this mean that the conditions were that harsh that they thought these lighthouse keepers may not survive, and may not go back to their wives and children?!!

 At 24 metres  it is also the tallest of Queensland's timber framed iron clad lighthouses.

there are two stamps on the back which I find a bit confusing, since this is one of those postage prepaid cards, and as you can read it yourselves, it refers to delivery worldwide...so why would one need to use more postage then, I don't get it?
Anyways, till someone solves my mystery - the upper stamp was issued in 2008 in a set of four Tourist Precincts stamps and this one shows The Rocks in Sydney. The other stamp is from 2007 from a set of four Australian Wildflowers - here you can see the Green Spider-Flower.

Thanks to Margaret for this lovely lighthouse!