the current Central Pier was constructed to incorporate a widened Pilot's Slipway and stone steps to the outer harbour. Lighthouse construction and coal facilities In 1862 the newly constructed tramway of the Mt Pleasant Coal and Iron Co Ltd. brought the first load of coal from its mine to the harbour. The line approached the harbour along the foreshore from North Beach and the alignment is clearly identified by the present cycleway. Both the Mt Pleasant Mine and Mt Keira Mine tramways were initially 3 feet 9 inches gauge but in 1879 they were widened to standard gauge - 4 feet 8 1/2 inches, when steam locomotives replaced the horse drawn skips thereby dramatically increasing the capacity of the mines to deliver coal to the port. The planned eastern breakwater was built between 1867 and 1869 using stone excavated from the construction of the basin. The breakwater lighthouse was not part of the original plans of the 1859 Moriarty harbour improvements. In 1867, following a deputation to the Minister of Public Works, it was agreed a lighthouse would be constructed. Prior to 1867 the entrance to the harbour was marked with a beacon atop a pole at the end of the Pier Moriarty made a visit to Wollongong Harbour in January 1870 in company with the Minister and Colonial Architect James Barnet, and again later in June to select a site for a proposed lighthouse (the Wollongong Breakwater Lighthouse). Tenders were called in October with the successful tenderer a Joseph Mather. The final cost of the lighthouse, including foundations and lantern house and light was in the vicinity of £3,451. The original light apparatus was dismantled around 1970 and the light permanently extinguished in 1974 but the fabric was substantially restored in 1999-2000 under a State Funded conservation program at a cost of $100,000. In 1873 a timber wharf, henceforth known as the Steamer Wharf, was built, replacing an earlier 1856 timber wharf. This was the second of three wharf constructions on this site, the last being the present wharf that was constructed in the 1980s. In 1875-76 the first coke ovens in the Illawarra, eventually two batteries of six ovens, were built for James Osborne, who was associated with the Mt Keira Colliery, and William Ahern. They were established for the manufacture of coke, salt and firebricks. The coke produced from slack coal from the Mt Keira colliery was