Water Wheel - Cape Leeuwin

Cape Leeuwin in Western Australia is the meeting place of the Indian and Antarctic Oceans and is home to the tallest lighthouse on mainland Australia.

The stonemasons working on the lighthouse were housed nearby and a wooden water wheel was erected in 1895 to pump water from a spring.

The spring water was packed with minerals which began to precipitate onto the water wheel.  Eventually, the wheel stopped turning, as it had become covered in a layer of limestone. This process normally takes hundreds of years in settings such as in caves, but it only took decades at this site.

Today, the wheel still stands as a curiosity that people mostly visit on their way to or from the much more famous lighthouse.