Cape Solander Lighthouse Society | Keeper tours, museum and light watch, Kurnell NSW

Guided tours

Three ways to climb the tower

Every tour is led by a trained volunteer keeper who has stood the watch themselves, so the questions you ask on the stairs get answered by someone who was up there at first light this morning. Numbers are deliberately small: the tower is 140 years old and the spiral stair is only 61 cm wide.

60 minutes

The Keeper’s Tour

Wednesday to Sunday · 10.30am and 1.30pm

The working tour. Start in the fog-bell shed, hear how the 1901 bell was rung through thick weather, then climb the 36-step spiral stair to the watch room — the highest point the public can stand. Your keeper reads out what the log said on this date in 1908, and then what it says today. If your tour lands on noon, you ring the bell.

Adult $18 · Concession $12 · Child 5–15 $8
Under 5 free · Family (2 adults + 2 children) $45
Twelve people maximum

Request a place on a Keeper’s Tour

90 minutes

Lantern Room Twilight Tour

Fridays and Saturdays, from 5.30pm, September to April

Eight people, one keeper, and the last hour of light. You see the 1899 dioptric lens panels up close, turn the original clockwork drive by hand, and take billy tea out onto the gallery while the duty keeper logs the sunset watch. Bring a windproof layer; the gallery is 44 m above the sea and it is always colder up there than you think.

$28 per person, all ages
Eight people maximum, bookings essential
Weather dependent — cancelled in high wind or lightning, refunded in full

Ask about the Twilight Tour

Schools & groups

Group and school tours

Weekdays by arrangement · minimum 8 people

Two hours, $12 per person, built around what teachers actually need it for. We link to the NSW syllabus for Year 3 Community and Remembrance and Year 5 The Australian Colonies, and finish with a whale-spotting session on the deck if the sea is kind. Scout groups, Probus clubs, camera clubs and birthday parties are all welcome.

$12 per person; adults accompanying a school group free
Worksheets and a pre-visit pack supplied
Ramp access to the museum and the bell shed for every group

Arrange a group visit

Before you book: conditions and cancellations

The tower closes when gusts exceed 40 km/h, when there is lightning within 10 km, or on a total fire ban day. Twilight Tours are cancelled in rain as well. We email booked visitors by 8am on the day and you can rebook or take a full refund, whichever you prefer. Everything else here is outdoors on an exposed clifftop: closed shoes, water and a windproof layer earn their keep. Payment is by card or cash at the gate — there is nothing to print and no booking fee.

The light watch

Two watches a day, every day of the year

The watch is the reason the Society exists. Since 1994 a keeper has climbed the tower at first light and again an hour before sunset. Nobody pays us to do it. Someone standing on a clifftop twice a day notices things — weather, wildlife, the state of the stonework, and the boat that should not be there.

What we write down

Wind direction and strength, swell height and period, visibility, cloud, sea state, and everything alive out there: humpback and southern right whales, dolphins, Australian fur seals, little penguins on the rare days they turn up, white-bellied sea eagles, shearwater flocks, and once, memorably, an ocean sunfish the size of a dining table.

Where the log goes

Each watch is written by hand in the Watch Book — 41 volumes and counting — then transcribed into our digital log. Whale counts go into the region’s humpback migration records. Unusual birds, entangled whales, oil on the water or damaged vessels are reported to NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service the same day.

The rota

Seventy active duty keepers share the rota, roughly four shifts a month each, backed by 170 supporting members. New keepers do a half-day induction, a coastal safety briefing and two supervised watches, and then they hold the tower on their own. Keeper numbers are read into the log on the anniversary of your first watch.

Humpbacks counted from the Cape Solander deck, May to November, five most recent seasons
Season	Humpbacks logged	Busiest day	Keepers on the deck
2020–21	1,905	15 July — 141 whales	38
2021–22	2,180	9 July — 162 whales	44
2022–23	2,446	22 July — 178 whales	51
2023–24	2,690	14 July — 191 whales	58
2024–25	2,873	19 July — 204 whales	63

Counts are made with the naked eye and 7×50 binoculars from a fixed count station, so they under-count rather than flatter. The tally above is 12,094 of the 55,000-plus sightings in the Watch Book since 1994.

Our story

From a dark tower to a working museum

The light was switched off in 1979 and the tower, the cottages and the 1899 lens sat behind lantana for fifteen years. This is how they came back.

1868
First light. A fixed white light is shown from a timber tower on the cape, 44 m above the sea, to steer coastal trade into Botany Bay through the night.
1885
The sandstone tower. The timber structure is replaced by the tower you see today: locally quarried sandstone, 14 m to the gallery, a kerosene burner turning on a clockwork drive with a 240 kg descending weight.
1910
The storm. A southerly buster takes the keeper’s verandah into the sea and floods the store. The cottages are rebuilt in brick the following year — the building the museum now occupies.
1932
Electric. The kerosene burner gives way to an electric lamp and the clockwork drops to standby duty, where it stayed for another 22 years.

1979
Decommissioned. The light moves to an automated steel tower further down the cape. The last keeper hands over the keys and the Watch Book; the log stops for fifteen years.
1994
The Society forms. Eight locals spend a winter clearing lantana, find the Watch Book in a cupboard under the stairs, and restart the daily watch. The first entry is dated 4 October 1994.
2003
The museum opens. The 1911 assistant keeper’s cottage is stabilised and opened to the public, four rooms and all, with the lens panels on loan from the collection.
2016
Conservation. A seven-year stonework program begins: 240 tonnes repointed, 412 blocks replaced by hand, each one named in the restoration ledger kept beside the tower door.
Today
Open to the public. 240 members, no paid staff, and a tower you can climb for the first time since the light went out.

The museum

The keeper’s cottage, opened as a museum

Four rooms, low doorways, and the particular smell of cold stone. Entry is free; a gold-coin donation pays for the conservator who looks after the collection.

What you’ll see

The 1899 dioptric lens panels — 214 prisms, three panels recovered from the tip in 1996
The original clockwork drive and its 240 kg descending weight
Keeper’s logbooks, 1872–1975, open at the page for today’s date
The brass fog bell of 1901, rung at noon on open days
Signal flags, the 1911 stove, and the tool chest of the last keeper

Opening hours and access

Saturday and Sunday, 10am–4pm

Closed Christmas Day, Boxing Day, and on total fire ban days. Stewards are on duty throughout — ask them anything; they have read every label at least fifty times and know where the good stories are kept.

Hearing loop at the desk
Large-print notes and tactile plans
Step-free entry ramp and an accessible toilet next door

The shop

At the museum desk, run by whoever is stewarding that day: the Society’s illustrated history booklet ($15), lighthouse postcards, tea towels printed with the 1885 brick pattern, and the annual Watch Book extract ($10).

Card and cash. Every dollar goes to the sandstone fund and the collection, and members get 10% off.

Ask the collection team

Don’t miss

The museum logbook page is turned over every morning by whichever steward opens up, so the entry you read is 150 years old but dated today. Visitors are welcome to read it, and to leave a line in the visitors’ book that somebody will read in 2176.

Plan your visit

Getting here, and what to expect

The lighthouse precinct sits inside Kamay Botany Bay National Park on the southern headland of the bay, 11 km south of the heads and about 40 minutes from the Sydney CBD.

Where we are: The Lighthouse Precinct, Cape Solander Drive, Kurnell NSW 2231. Post to PO Box 186, Kurnell NSW 2231.
Opening hours: Precinct grounds: daily, sunrise to sunset. Museum: Saturday and Sunday, 10am–4pm. Tower: tours only, Wednesday to Sunday.
Park entry: $8 per vehicle for the Kurnell area, paid at the gate or through the Park’nPay app. Free for walkers and cyclists. The lighthouse precinct itself charges no entry.
By car: Princes Highway south, then Captain Cook Drive to Kurnell, then Cape Solander Drive to the lighthouse carpark. Sealed, signposted, and about three minutes’ walk from the gate.
On foot or by bike: The Cape Solander Drive shared path runs from the Kurnell Visitor Centre to the precinct, 2.6 km each way, with the whale-watching deck on the way.
By bus: Route 987 from Cronulla to Kurnell stops on Captain Cook Drive; from there it is a 35-minute walk out along the cape. There is no bus to the gate itself.
Weather and closures: Exposed clifftop, no shade, and wind that arrives without warning. The tower closes in high wind, lightning or total fire ban; booked visitors are emailed by 8am.
Facilities: Accessible unisex toilet beside the museum, drinking water at the museum door, picnic tables in the lee of the fog-bell shed. No bins — please take your rubbish home. The nearest shops are 5 km away in Kurnell village.
Children and dogs: Children are welcome on every tour, and must be within arm’s reach on the stair and at the cliff edge — the sandstone undercuts and there is no fence on the rock shelf. Well-behaved dogs on a lead are welcome in the grounds, but not in the museum or the tower.
Drones and filming: Drones are prohibited across the national park. Personal photography is fine everywhere; commercial filming needs a park permit, and we will help you apply.

Best time to come

For whales: the northern migration passes close inshore from mid-May to early July, and the southern migration, with mothers and calves, from late September to early November. Roughly 11am to 2pm gives you the clearest light and the least wind.

For the tower and the museum with fewer people: a Saturday morning in late winter, or an overcast Tuesday in March. The billy tea is free either way.

What to bring

Closed shoes with grip for the spiral stair
A windproof layer — the gallery is 44 m up and always colder than the carpark
Water and a hat; there is no shade on the cape
Binoculars if you have them, or borrow a pair of ours

Sea state and the weather

We check the coastal forecast every morning before we open the tower. For the official picture, see the Kamay Botany Bay National Park page, which carries park closures, fire bans and road works before we do.

Accessibility

Getting everyone up the hill

The precinct sits on a headland with a cliff on one side and a car park on the other, so some of it is easier to reach than the rest. Here is exactly where the limits are, and what we do about them.

Step-free

Compacted gravel path from the accessible parking bay to the gates
Museum entry ramp on the southern side, 1:14 gradient
Fog-bell shed deck, picnic tables and toilet all step-free
Accessible unisex toilet with a left-hand transfer, unlocked on open days

If you cannot climb

The watch room is reached by 36 cast-iron spiral steps, 61 cm wide, with a handrail on both sides. If stairs are not for you, a keeper will bring the tower down to you: a photo book of the climb, the same view from the gallery on a tablet, and an audio description of the lantern room, all at ground level and all free with your tour ticket.

Hearing, sight and quiet

Hearing loop at the museum desk and on every guided tour
Written tour notes, in large-print and plain-English versions
Assistance dogs welcome everywhere, including the museum and the tower
A quiet room behind the shop for anyone who needs a break from the wind and the crowd

Tell us what you need at hello@capesolanderlighthouse.org.au and we will have it ready.

Volunteer

What the Society actually needs

We are 240 members and no paid staff. Some of these roles want a day a month, some want an afternoon a season, and one of them is mostly about making tea. All of them keep a building standing that would otherwise fall down.

Duty keeper

Stand the sunrise or sunset watch, log the sea, ring the noon bell, and be the person who notices. Two supervised watches and a coastal safety briefing before you join the rota.

Roughly four shifts a month · early mornings

Tour guide

Lead a 60-minute Keeper’s Tour. Training is four shadowed tours, the site manual, and a first-aid refresher that the Society pays for.

One or two tours a fortnight · Wed–Sun

Museum steward

Open the cottage on a Saturday or Sunday, meet visitors, turn the logbook page, keep the room warm and the kettle going.

One weekend day a month · 10am–4pm

Maintenance crew

Second Saturday of the month: painting, pointing, path repair, storm damage, and the unglamorous eternal war on salt, rust and lantana. Tools and cake provided.

One morning a month · real jobs for every pair of hands

Archivist

Digitise logbooks, catalogue the photograph collection, and answer the family-history letters that arrive from people whose great-grandfather kept the light.

From home, most weeks · training on our catalogue provided

Tea rota

Genuinely the most contested role in the Society. Billy tea, Anzac biscuits and, in winter, soup for the crew on open days.

One open day a month · applicants are vetted for biscuit quality

How to put your hand up

Email volunteers@capesolanderlighthouse.org.au and tell us which role and how often you can come — a rough guess is fine, we would rather you under-promise. Guide and steward roles need a Working with Children Check; we pay the fee and the office will walk you through the application. Nobody is ever asked to do anything on the cliff side of the rope.

Membership and support

Become a member, sponsor a stone, or leave a bequest

Membership keeps the lights on in the cottage and the insurance paid. Stone sponsorship pays for the building itself, block by block, out of the sandstone fund.

$35 a year

Individual

Two tower tour passes each year
The quarterly Watch Book extract by email
The members’ twilight watch, first Saturday of the month
10% off at the museum shop

Join as an individual

$60 a year

Household

Everything in Individual membership
For two adults and any children at the same address
Two guest passes to bring someone new
Priority booking for Twilight Tours

Join as a household

$250 a year

Keeper’s Circle

Named in the Society’s annual report
Four tour passes and two Twilight Tour places
A conservation briefing with the stonework team each spring
First refusal on every new tour we run

Join the Keeper’s Circle

Sponsor a sandstone block — $250

Your name goes into the restoration ledger kept beside the tower door, alongside the 412 other blocks replaced since 2016. You will get the date yours went in, and a photograph of the mason who cut it.

Adopt a lens panel — $1,000

Funds a full year of cleaning, humidity monitoring and conservation-grade storage for one of the 1899 dioptric panels. You get the conservator’s report, which is a better read than it sounds.

Bequests and gifts in memory

Many of the books in our collection, and two of the lens panels, came to us this way. Talk to the treasurer; there is no pressure and no obligation.

How to give

By bank transfer: email treasurer@capesolanderlighthouse.org.au for the Society account details, or put cash in the box at the museum desk.

Please mark what it is for — the sandstone fund, the collection, or wherever the need is greatest — and we will honour it. Unless you ask us not to, we will thank you by name in the annual report.

Where the money goes, plainly

The Society is an incorporated association in New South Wales and is not a deductible gift recipient, so donations are not tax deductible and we will not pretend otherwise. Nobody here is paid: every dollar goes to the building, the collection, and the insurance and public liability cover that lets us open the gate. The accounts are presented at the annual general meeting each March, and any member may inspect them.

Corporate and community workdays

Teams of six to twenty are welcome on the second Saturday of the month. Come and point a wall, clear a path or paint a fence for a morning, and we will feed you, hand you a hard hat, and take you up the tower afterwards. Email the volunteers address and we will find a job that suits the hands you bring.

Give a Saturday morning to an 1885 lighthouse

There is a job here for every pair of hands, and a kettle at the end of it. Tell us how much time you have and we will find the right corner of the cape for you.

Volunteer with us See the tours

Contact

Talk to a volunteer

There is no call centre. Your email lands in the inbox of whichever member looks after that part of the Society, usually between shifts, so allow three or four days for a reply. For anything urgent on the day — a booking, a closure, a lost hat — ring the tower office.

General hello@capesolanderlighthouse.org.au
Tours tours@capesolanderlighthouse.org.au
Volunteering volunteers@capesolanderlighthouse.org.au
Membership membership@capesolanderlighthouse.org.au
Collection collection@capesolanderlighthouse.org.au
Treasurer treasurer@capesolanderlighthouse.org.au

Tower office
02 9000 1868 — answered Wednesday to Sunday, 9am to 3pm. Outside those hours the phone rings at the cottage and nobody is there to pick it up, which is exactly what we would like you to hear.

Post
Cape Solander Lighthouse Society Inc.
PO Box 186, Kurnell NSW 2231, Australia

In person
The Lighthouse Precinct, Cape Solander Drive, Kurnell NSW 2231. The gate is open from sunrise, and the museum opens at 10am on weekends.

If you have a photograph, a logbook, a letter or a piece of equipment that belongs with this lighthouse, write to the collection team — we have reunited some strange things with their rightful shelves.