I finally took the new path to the lighthouse from Wategos and sorry, after all that expenditure of money, workmanship and time I was left underwhelmed and concerned that the outcome was the best we could manage on this most sacred and sublime location – Australia’s most easterly point, Cape Byron, Walgun. Whatever you name it, it does not get much better.
Steep and unrelentingly smooth concrete, the stair path is a rectilinear barrier, super strong, an extruded mat laid over and above ground as if by some sort of machine. When all else fails the staircase will remain! Apart from the relief of a few breakout spaces with beautiful rockwork we have no sense of earth, of water, of geology, of place, or even the craft of hand. The railings take their cue from the old but with no joy, zero charm and little craft. It is a chunky, heavy hardwood scaffold knocked up to do a job with some sensible mesh to keep the kids safe.
Oh it’s too easy to criticise, the outcome is functional, practical, and possibly economical although I expect the cost of construction was still enormous. I do acknowledge the difficulty of the task and the care and effort expended to deliver a workable solution, but solid, practical, and functional are surely only the first hurdles in such an important location. I shudder to think nowadays at the number of visitors the cape can host. What do we offer, as custodians, to this place to reinforce that experience as meaningful and memorable? What do we offer as a conscious acknowledgement of the value and magnificence and sensitivity of place, of environment?
A practical unadorned smooth safe exercise track for me does not really reach the mark. National Parks has installed some excellent visitor infrastructure in NSW, no doubt with the close involvement of talented architects and builders, engineers, artist, craftspeople and landscape architects. Surely our extraordinary promontory deserves the best. The artistic use of stone, of timbers, of pavers and the irregular, of breaks and contrasting material, textures, method and weight, the integration of landscape planting and form, the allowance for ground water, flora and fauna, all these inputs are surely available to the creative design challenge of place. If your concrete path varies little from your closest fire escape you have no need to wonder where you are.
Only about a third of the track has been upgraded to the concrete monolith, I shudder to think if the remaining section was to be treated the same and perhaps topped out with a full concrete-encased lighthouse surround! True the old pavers and treated pine logs are ready for renewal but there are so many possible alternatives, we need more than just a heavy-handed practical response.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
