Open today, 10:00–16:00 Tower tours run on the half hour · closed Christmas Day

(02) 9668 0412 hello@capesolanderlight.org.au

Cape Solander Lighthouse Society

Kurnell · Kamay Botany Bay National Park

We keep the Cape Solander light.

The 1871 lighthouse at the end of the Kurnell peninsula stood dark for forty years. A volunteer society relit it, reopened the tower, and now hands the lamp room keys to visitors six days a week.

Book a tower tour Plan your visit
  • Tours daily, 10:30–15:30
  • 72 steps to the lantern room
  • Free entry for members
The Cape Solander lighthouse at dusk, its red bands still visible against a white tower, the amber lamp lit and a beam sweeping out across the water.
The tower at dusk, lamp lit for the evening watch.
1871Year the light was first shown, on 2 August
72Cast-iron steps to the lantern room
9,400Visitors on guided tours last year
74Active volunteers on the watch roster

Who we are

A society of fitters, teachers, divers and retired keepers

We are an incorporated volunteer association, not a government agency and not a theme park. Everything you see inside the tower — the paint, the brass, the wiring, the labels in the museum — was done by members on weekends.

We restore

Since 1996 members have re-rendered the tower, rebuilt the gallery handrail, returned the 1870 Fresnel lens to its pedestal and rewired the lantern room for its low-voltage lamp.

We keep watch

The light is no longer a navigation aid, but a keeper logs the weather, the sea state and anything adrift in the bay every day the tower is open. The evening watch continues after the gates close.

We open the door

The keeper’s residence holds our museum: original plans, the logbooks, the oil-room tools and the letters written home by the men who ran the light. Guided tower tours leave every half hour.

A lighthouse is not a monument to the past. It is a promise that someone, somewhere, is still awake. Founding charter of the Society, adopted 1996

Our history

One hundred and fifty-five years of the light

From a kerosene flame tended by a resident keeper to a lantern room handed over to the public, the tower has been lit, darkened and lit again.

  1. 1870

    The lens arrives from Birmingham

    A second-order Fresnel lens — a drum of hand-cut glass prisms over a metre across — is shipped out and assembled on site. It is still the centrepiece of the museum bench.

  2. 1871

    First light, 2 August

    The keeper trims the wick and the light is shown for the first time, guiding ships toward the entrance of Botany Bay.

  3. 1932

    Oil gives way to electricity

    The kerosene apparatus is replaced with an electric lamp. The last resident keeper retires a decade later.

  4. 1955

    The light is decommissioned

    An automated beacon at the entrance to the bay makes the tower redundant. The lamp is extinguished and the door is locked.

  5. 1979

    Four decades in the dark

    Vandalised, water-damaged and fenced off, the tower is declared unsafe. Few expect it to survive.

  6. 1996

    The Society forms

    Sixty-one residents and two retired lightkeepers sign the founding charter. The first working bee clears a decade of graffiti and pigeons from the stairwell.

  7. 2004

    The keeper’s residence becomes a museum

    The cottage is reroofed, and the Society opens the collection of plans, logbooks and tools to the public for the first time.

  8. 2016

    The lantern room is restored

    After a five-year campaign, the gallery handrail, glazing and roof vents are replaced. The lantern is relit for heritage open days.

  9. 2019

    The first night watch

    A seasonal evening programme begins, taking twelve visitors at a time to see the lamp and the whale migration by starlight.

  10. 2026

    Restoration at 82 per cent

    Stonework, lens conservation and solar power are in progress. Our next milestone is a fully glazed gallery open to all visitors.

Tours & prices

Three ways to get inside the tower

Tower access is guided only and weather-dependent; the museum is open to all. Bookings are taken by phone or email and confirmed the same day.

Most booked

Tower tour

Climb the cast-iron stairs to the lantern room with a volunteer keeper, past the original oil room and the 1932 switchboard.

  • 45 minutes, every half hour
  • Groups of 8; sturdy footwear
  • Tickets from the museum desk

$12adult · $8 concession

Included with entry

Keeper’s museum

Self-guided, in the restored keeper’s residence. Original plans, logbooks, the oil-room tools and the letters the keepers wrote home.

  • Step-free, seated galleries
  • Large-print guides at the desk
  • Wed–Sun and public holidays

Freedonation suggested

Seasonal

Night watch

An evening climb, April to September, to see the lamp lit at dusk and look for humpbacks on the winter migration with the keepers’ binoculars.

  • 90 minutes, 12 people maximum
  • Thursdays & Saturdays, 18:30
  • Warm layers; lamps provided

$26all tickets

Tour prices, 2026 season (AUD, GST included)
TicketNotesPrice
AdultTower tour, 45 minutes$12.00
Concession & studentSeniors, students, health-card holders$8.00
Child (5–15 years)Under 5 free; must be accompanied$8.00
FamilyTwo adults and two children$30.00
School groupPer student, minimum 15 students$6.00
Night watchApril–September, bookings essential$26.00
Society membersAll tours and the museumFree

The lighthouse

Sixteen metres of tower, and one very large lens

The structure is modest by the standards of the great lights, and that is the point: this is a working headland tower, built to be manned, not celebrated.

Construction began in 1869 on a sandstone plinth cut from the headland itself. The rendered masonry tower was completed in 1871 and painted in the broad red bands that let mariners pick it out against the grey sea.

The optic is the reason engineers still visit. A second-order Fresnel lens of 1870 concentrates the lamp into a beam that was said to reach eighteen nautical miles in clear weather.

A cutaway illustration of the second-order Fresnel lens: a brass-framed drum of stacked glass prisms throwing a fan of amber light.
The 1870 second-order Fresnel lens, now conserved on the museum bench.
Built
1869–1871; first lit 2 August 1871
Decommissioned
1955, replaced by an automatic beacon
Height
16 metres to the gallery
Optic
Second-order Fresnel lens, 1870Conserved and displayed in the keeper’s museum.
Historic range
18 nautical miles (33 km) in clear weather
Steps
72, cast iron, graded “moderate” climb
Access
Guided only; groups of 8Stairs are narrow and the gallery is open to the weather.
Status
Restoration 82% completeListed on the State Heritage Register.

Restoration

What the working bees are doing right now

Every figure below is reported to members at the quarterly meeting. Percentages are the share of the agreed scope of works completed, not a wishlist.

  • Access path & handrail 100%

    Completed March 2023: graded path from the car park and a compliant handrail to the tower door.

  • Lantern room & gallery glazing 92%

    Six of seven storm panes replaced; the last is on order from a specialist glazier.

  • Tower stonework & render 78%

    Two elevations re-rendered; the salt-damaged south face is next, when the weather allows.

  • Keeper’s cottage museum 65%

    Roof and floors done; display joinery and climate control for the logbooks remain.

  • Solar power & safety systems 55%

    The lamp and emergency lighting now run on a 6 kW array; the fire panel upgrade is funded and booked.

  • 1870 Fresnel lens conservation 40%

    Cleaning and re-bedding the prisms under a conservation plan; cracks in three prisms are documented and stable.

From the visitors’ book

What people write after the climb

I came up on a school excursion in 1998 and I have been carrying a paint scraper up those stairs ever since. The view never stops being worth the climb.
Mai TranVolunteer keeper since 2009
My grandmother used to watch this light from a fishing boat off Kurnell. Standing in the lantern room closed a loop I did not know was open.
Danny AliVisitor, Newcastle
The night watch is the quietest, best hour in Sydney. You hear the sea, you hear the lamp, and then somebody spots a whale.
Priya RamanSociety member since 2021

Plan your visit

Finding the tower at the end of the peninsula

We sit inside Kamay Botany Bay National Park at Kurnell, about 45 minutes’ drive south of the Sydney CBD. Parking is free and the lighthouse is a short walk from the whale-watching platform.

Opening hours

  • Wednesday – Sunday10:00 – 16:00
  • Tower tours10:30 – 15:30, half-hourly
  • Night watch (Apr–Sep)18:30, Thu & Sat
  • Public holidays10:00 – 16:00
  • Mondays & TuesdaysClosed
  • Good Friday & Christmas DayClosed

Museum is step-free

Tower reached by stairs only

Getting here

Cape Solander Drive
Kurnell NSW 2231
Kamay Botany Bay National Park

By car: take Captain Cook Drive to the end of the peninsula. By bus: route 987 stops at Kurnell village, then a 3 km walk along the shared path. The site is managed jointly with NSW National Parks.

Call (02) 9668 0412 · tours@capesolanderlight.org.au

A simplified map of the Kurnell peninsula showing Cape Solander at its tip, Captain Cook Drive leading to the lighthouse car park, Botany Bay to the north-west and the Tasman Sea to the south-east.

Membership

Join the society that keeps the lamp

Members vote at the annual meeting, get free tower access all year, and receive the printed Watch Log four times a year. Every dollar is spent on the tower.

Keeper’s Friend

$45/year

  • Free entry to the museum and all tower tours
  • The quarterly Watch Log, posted
  • Voting rights at the annual meeting
Join as a Friend
Most supporters choose this

The Beam

$120/year

  • Everything in Keeper’s Friend
  • Priority booking for the night watch
  • A behind-the-scenes restoration tour each year
  • Name recorded in the annual Restoration Roll
Join The Beam

Life Member

$750once

  • All member benefits for life
  • Invitation to the keepers’ dinner
  • A brass plaque of your choosing on the museum bench
Enquire about Life membership

Support the light

Give an hour or give a hand

We have no paid staff. A gift of $50 re-renders a square metre of tower; $250 pays for a storm pane on the lantern gallery. If you would rather give time than money, the working bees run on the first Saturday of the month and the training is free.

Choose an amount to continue by email
Volunteer with us

Where a gift goes

Published in the annual accounts, audited by members each August.

  • 71% conservation and building works
  • 17% museum and public programmes
  • 8% training and safety for volunteers
  • 4% insurance and administration

Questions

Things people ask before they come

Do I need to book a tower tour?

Booking is recommended in school holidays and essential for the night watch. At quiet times you can usually join the next half-hourly tour by turning up at the museum desk. To book, call (02) 9668 0412 or email tours@capesolanderlight.org.au; we confirm the same day.

Is the lighthouse accessible?

The keeper’s museum, the courtyard and the path from the car park are step-free and wheelchair accessible, with an accessible toilet on site. The tower itself is reached only by 72 narrow cast-iron steps and is not suitable for wheelchairs or large mobility devices. A video of the lantern room view plays in the museum for anyone who cannot make the climb.

What happens if it is raining or very windy?

The gallery closes in high wind, electrical storms or heavy rain because it is open to the weather. The museum stays open, tower tickets are refunded or held for another day, and we will phone you if a booking is affected.

Can I bring children?

Yes. Children aged 5 and over are welcome on tower tours but must be accompanied by an adult, and one adult may bring at most two children up the stairs. Under-fives are welcome in the museum, which has a small discovery table of brass fittings and charts.

Can I fly a drone or use a tripod?

Drones are not permitted anywhere on the headland, as Cape Solander sits inside a national park and under a coastal flight path. Handheld photography for personal use is welcome and tripods are fine in the courtyard, but please do not block the stairway. Commercial shoots need written permission from NSW National Parks.

Are dogs allowed?

Assistance dogs are always welcome. Other dogs are not permitted inside the tower or the museum, and national-park rules require them to be on a lead on the surrounding tracks.

How do I become a volunteer?

Email volunteer@capesolanderlight.org.au or introduce yourself at a working bee on the first Saturday of the month. No experience is needed; new volunteers do an induction, a safety briefing and two sessions shadowing a keeper before taking a tour alone.