Most of us have had that moment when the GPS suddenly feels a bit dodgy.
The blue dot says you’re right on track, but your gut says, ‘really?’ I had that feeling the other day up at the Byron Bay lighthouse.
I was watching the beam swing out over the ocean and thinking that, long before phones and apps, sailors relied on that simple idea: find the light, and you know where you are.
The Cape Byron Lighthouse is full of little ‘did‑you‑know’ details that make you see it differently, and they set it apart from other lighthouses around the country. It sits on the most easterly point of mainland Australia, so its light is one of the very first on the continent to see each new day.
It also has one of the most powerful beams of any lighthouse in Australia.
The tower itself is more than 100 years old, and originally ran on kerosene before being converted to electricity. Lighthouse keepers and their families once lived in the cottages up there.
Today, it’s all automated, and the cottages are part of the National Park.
Australia now has hundreds of old lighthouses and navigation lights, and most ships use GPS and digital charts to find their way.
Even so, the Byron light still turns on every evening.
On a clear night its beam can be seen many kilometres out, a white flash cutting across the dark.
Sailors say that’s still reassuring. Electronics can freeze, batteries can die, and screens can be misread, but a lighthouse is simple: a solid tower on a headland that you can see with your own eyes.
For those of us who live here, it’s easy to think of the lighthouse as just a nice walk, a whale‑spotting platform or a backdrop for photos.
But it’s also a living piece of working history that still quietly does what it was built to do – and unlike most, it does so from the edge of the continent with a beam strong enough to reach deep into the night sea.
In a world run by tiny screens, there’s something comforting about knowing our Byron lighthouse is still out there each evening, sweeping its light across the water and keeping watch over this corner of the coast.
Sharyn Jones , Main Arm
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