Lisa Ikin

Remember that kids’ TV show Round the Twist, where the zany dad and his three kids lived in a haunted lighthouse? Well, that was my life from ages seven to 12, minus the ghosts – though we had a few strange moments of our own.  Last weekend, I got to do something most people never will: I caught a helicopter to Tasman Island, located off Tasmania’s southeast coast, with my 85-year-old dad and my little sister. It had been 49 years since we last set foot on the island, with the Rotary Club of Tasman Peninsula flying visitors there only once a year. Photograph: Lisa Ikin + Deidre Ikin During my childhood, our family lived on five remote Tasmanian lighthouse stations: Cape Bruny, Tasman Island, Maatsuyker Island, Swan Island and Low Head.  Unlike Round the Twist, we didn’t live inside the lighthouses but in cottages nearby – so close I would count the flashes as I drifted off to sleep.   Growing up as a lighthouse kid on those isolated islands taught me a few things – here are my eight greatest lessons. 1. Waiting is a way of life I’d never heard the phrase ‘delayed gratification’ at seven, but I understood it perfectly. Supplies arrived fortnightly, weather and seas permitting. Two weeks felt like forever when you’re hanging out for chocolate, fresh fruit and vegetables, or the latest library books. With no TV or radio, reading became my guilty pleasure. I waited for new books the way I now wait for my favourite Netflix series to drop. 2. Lighthouse people are a bit different