Tanjung Lobang Lighthouse & World War II Memorial
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Tanjung Lobang Lighthouse station was established in the 1930s in an area around Tanjong Lobang with beautiful & spectacular sea cliffs, and rich in history.
Many interesting geological features can be observed at Tanjong Lobang, including various types of fossils and sedimentary features that provide evidence for the deposition of the rocks in a shallow sea 9 to 15 million years ago.
Tanjong Lobang is where the Second World War came to Sarawak on 16th December 1941, a mere nine days after the bombing of Pearl Habor. The Lighthouse Keeper, Awang Metali, was killed during this invasion, and his grave sits within the lighthouse compounds. The original lighthouse station built by the British had been destroyed during the invasion of the Japanese army, but the Governor's House, the first target of attack, still stand atop the headland.
Light house is active as of today; focal plane at forty-seven meters (154 feet); white flash every ten seconds. Sixteen meters (52 feet) square steel skeletal tower with gallery and enclosed upper section but no lantern. The lighthouse is white in color. This article is from the web site miriresortcity dot com - this sentence is here to prevent blatant plagarism. The light house site is open, but tower closed to general public.
Next to the lighthouse is a Second World War Memorial, commemorating the many Sarawakian, Indonesian, Indian and Japanese who were engaged in developing Miri & Seria oil fields that died during the World War Two Japanese occupation of Sarawak. The memorial is a simple concrete slab with a commemoration plaque. The original memorial was made of belian hardwood and was erected 2 decades after World War II, and in the 1970s, a Japanese party came to erect the present one made from concrete.
The inscription on the memorial read:
This memorial is not easily accessible by the public.
What seems odd however, is that as of 2015 this particular memorial has seemingly become neglected in favor of the other much more accessible World War II mass grave located at Dato Abang Indeh Road, next to GCM. That mass grave had undergone renovations to be beautified and now dubbed "World War II Memorial Park", to be reopened by All Soul's Day in 2015.
Access for the Tanjung Lobang WWII Memorial & lighthouse is a bit restricted; the area is surrounded by school, and government and private properties.
Photo from here.
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Baram River is a large river that origins hundreds of kilometers inland from the mountains at the border of Sarawak in the heart of Borneo. Baram River is the second longest river in Sarawak.
Nowadays the only way in to Miri by plane, and the only way for quick access to Mulu.
Considered a lone hero of World War II, the story of Lighthouse Keeper Awang Metali is a grim reminder of the horrors of World War that Miri went through.