`I wanna marry a lighthouse keeper ...'.

IT TAKES FORTITUDE to spend over a decade at the southern-most point on mainland Australia. For ACF life member Peter Sutton, however, the rain and hail are one of the aspects of his life that he will miss most when he retires as Wilsons Promontory lighthouse caretaker at the end of September. "I don't mind the warm, and now I certainly don't mind the fog," Peter says.

Peter has worked in lightstations with his wife Pat for over 20 years now, 12 of which have been at the Prom. "We have come to like the climate and the isolation."

The lighthouse is a day's walk from the nearest settlement, and although campers stay overnight at the on-site accommodation the couple are often on their own. To survive in such conditions with only one another's company could be the end for some marriages. But Peter's relationship with Pat, who he met on a dancefloor over 44 years ago, is still "going strong".

Originally from a Queensland dairy-farming family, Peter took over the farm for a few years after college. He became a member of ACF because "as farmers we were always interested in keeping things going on". Attitudes have changed dramatically since then. "We were a bit the raw prawn compared to now. For instance we would clear away all the dead trees rather than leave them as habitat."

Although he enjoyed the lifestyle, Peter doesn't regret leaving farming. "If I'd stayed in farming I wouldn't have met one hundredth of the people I've met through the lightstations."

It was while working as shopkeepers on Point Islet Island in 1979 that Pat and Peter first considered running a lighthouse. "We were having afternoon tea one day with the local lightstation caretaker and he said, `why don't you do the job?' I said, `OK'. My wife gave me a look to check I was serious, and when she realised I was that was that."

Since the automation of lighthouses in the early 1980s, the job of the lightstation caretaker has changed to more of a caretaker position. Peter calls the new lights `Tupperware' because of the weaker light they emit. However he says the job still a case of "if the weather allows, pa it, if it grows, mow it".

Pat has vowed that once they leave the Prom she will be doing nothing but pursuing her favourite hobby of watercolour painting.

"It seems like yours truly is going to be chief cook and bottle washer," Peter laughs. It's pretty certain Peter will also find time to further develop his own hobby as a button accordionist. He has a collection of over 35 button accordions and is a "fully paid up member of the Sunshine Coast Button Accordion Club".

The couple anticipate their trip back to Queensland will be a slow one as they visit friends along the way, many of whom Peter has met through the accordion club.

"We will drop in on one woman who has kept in touch ever since I performed on `Macca'," Peter says, referring to the popular country radio program.

This lighthouseman is reflective as he contemplates the pros and cons of retirement from a job he describes as enough work for four people. "You can talk about it and talk about it, but the reality will probably only kick in once the holiday pay stops, when we realise that it isn't just another holiday that we aren't going back -- we can't go back."

Anna Demant is a member of the editorial team for Chain Reaction magazine and an ACF telemarketer.