Beach at Byron Bay

Beach at Byron Bay, originally uploaded by Ladymaggic.

Byron's beaches are like a dream come true, which sounds like a cliché until you experience them. If Australia does one thing really well, it has to be the beaches, and Byron's are among the best in Australia. Stretching between the headlands of the northern New South Wales coast, many are sheltered from the southerlies and offer great surf breaks. Clean and undeveloped, the beaches are not overcrowded with high-rises, or in fact with buildings of any sort.

Here, where the Coral Sea to the north meets the Tasman Sea in the south, Cape Byron protrudes into the Pacific Ocean and forms the most easterly point of the Australian mainland. Dramatic views from the headland are your reward for walking to the lighthouse (you can drive, but it takes the drama out of the scenery, and it will cost you $6 to park your car). From the Cape you will see stunning views over the Bay to Mt Warning and the Border Ranges, or south over Tallow Beach to Broken Head in the distance.

It may be a surprise, but Cape Byron is not all sand and surf. If you walk up Lee Lane from the Captain Cook lookout (off Lighthouse Road) you will find yourself in littoral (coastal) rainforest, with banksias, Bangalow palms, cabbage palms and melaleuca species. Emerging from the rainforest, you'll be rewarded by a wonderful view to the south along Tallow Beach and maybe by hang-gliders taking off from the wooden platform.

A few more hundred metres and you come past the historic lighthouse cottages, to the lighthouse itself (www.lighthouse.net.au) and then down the path to the extreme easterly point. Continue down the hill to Little Watego's and Watego's beaches and back along the paths to Byron Bay. You will almost certainly see pods of bottlenose dolphins from up here, and possibly rays and sea turtles.

In the appropriate seasons, Cape Byron is one of the best vantage points for whale-watching. From the end of June to August, the huge mammals migrate northwards to calve in the warm northern waters. Then, in September and October, they return with their new babies, sometimes stopping in the Bay for some whale R&R and to teach the young ones 'breaching' and 'slapping'. Most whale sightings are of humpbacks, distinctive by their spinal shape, but it's also possible to see other species.

However, back to the beaches. Gleaming white tiny-grained sand and clear turquoise-blue water only occasionally sullied by the debris of storms are what you can expect in Byron. Sometimes after a strong northerly wind 'cornflakes' - scraps of floating seaweed - appear in the waves, turning them a greenish-brown rather than the usual aquamarine. But nearly all year round, the water and the beaches invite luxurious sunbathing and clean swimming.

Byron Shire offers over 30km of beaches, from the busy, patrolled (in summer) beaches near the town, to isolated coves, nudist and dog-friendly beaches within 10-15 minutes drive. Ranging in temperature from around 18°C in the winter to 26°C in the summer, the water is perfect for most of the year, and only slightly chilly in winter. All year round, wear a hat and high-rating sunscreen as, even in winter, the Australian sun burns

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Lighthouse at Byron Bay

Lighthouse at Byron Bay, originally uploaded by Ladymaggic.

Byron Bay Lighthouse

Standing on a bald rocky headland with a precipitious cliff on the east side, and a sheer drop of approximately 100 metres, Cape Byron Lighthouse is the most easterly light in Australia, and one of the most powerful.

Built in the style used by NSW colonial architect, James Barnet, Charles Harding his successor, prepared the plans for the Cape Byron Lighthouse. Due to the elevation of the site, a tall structure was not required. Construction began in 1899 with the levelling of the site by contractors, Mitchell and King. The total cost was £10,042 (pounds) to the contractors, £8,000 for the apparatus and lantern house, and £2,600 for the road from Byron Bay township.

Tower Construction
The tower is constructed from concrete blocks made on the ground, lifted and cemented into position and finally cement rendered inside and out. This technique saved erecting framework.

The Lens
The eight ton optical lens was made by the French company, Societe des Establishment, Henry Lepante, Paris. It is a dioptric first-order bivalve double flashing lens and contains 760 pieces of highly polished prismatic glass. The lens revolves on a bath of 7cwt mercury. The original illuminant was a concentric six-wick kerosene burner. This was replaced in 1922 by a vaporised kerosene mantle burner, which increased the intensity from 145,000 cp to 500,000 cp. In 1956, the light was converted to mains electricity increasing the intensity to 2,200,000 cd.

The original lens weight driven mechanism, which works on a similar principle as that of a grandfather clock, was also replaced with an electric drive motor when the light was converted to electric operation. An auxiliary fixed red light is exhibited from the tower to cover Julian Rocks to the north.

The Event
The installation of the lighthouse was regarded as a great event in the district of Byron Bay. A banquet was arranged and special trains carried visitors from Lismore and Murwillumbah for the opening. The Premier of the day, the Hon. John See (later Sir John See), was accompanied by a number of his colleagues who left Sydney in the Government steamer 'Victoria'. However, bad weather prevented the vessel from arriving on time, and when the party should have been banqueting the steamer was some thirty miles away. She arrived in the bay just before midnight on 30 November 1901, but again, the weather made it impossible for the party to land until dawn.

The Lighthouse Opened
After landing, the party was informed that the banquet had taken place on the previous evening, and the necessary toast had been heartily drunk in the absence of the Premier and his party. Mr See, after making an acrobatic performance in landing, was cordially cheered, and later formally welcomed at the Great Northern Hotel. Interestingly, the lighthouse was christened with a rich and sumptuous vintage burgundy - not dashed against the tower to waste, but sipped by the ladies and legislators to compensate for having missed all the good things of the banquet held the night before.

Visit our Cape Byron Headland Reserve page for more information on the Cape.

Courtesy Cape Byron Trust