Australia and New Zealand Mini Series Part 12: South West Rocks, New South Wales

This is the twelfth in my series of short reflections on different places in Australia and New Zealand, which I visited in November 2019.

In my last post I shared some stories about the history of Trial Bay Gaol at South West Rocks, and today I write about Hat Head National Park and Smoky Cape Lighthouse.

Captain Cook first sighted and named Smoky Cape on Sunday 13 May 1770 as he sailed past in his ship, the Endeavour.

Rising above the headland was smoke from the fires of the Dunghatti Aboriginal people, who had been living in the coastal environment now known as Hat Head National Park, and walking these beaches and headlands, for thousands of years.

Built in 1891, the lighthouse is the most elevated lighthouse in New South Wales. The need for a light at this cape had first been proposed in 1886 by Alexander Kethel, a Scottish-born Australian politician in West Sydney. Australia’s first manned light had been built by convicts in 1791: a wood fired beacon on the south head of Sydney Harbour. That eventually became the site for Australia’s first light tower: Macquarie Lighthouse, built in 1818.

Here at Smoky Cape, you may find glorious coastal views and a magnificent landscape with walking tracks, which is the traditional land of the Dunghatti Aboriginal people, and which continues to have strong cultural significance to them.