Kurnell, New South Wales
Cape Solander Lighthouse
A decommissioned 1861 tower on the Botany Bay clifftop, kept standing and kept open by the volunteers of the Cape Solander Lighthouse Society.
- Lit 1 March 1861
- Dark since 1978
- Kept by volunteers since 1994
The building
A tower built after three bad winters
The light was approved in 1858, after a run of wrecks in the approaches to Botany Bay, and first lit on 1 March 1861. It is 22 metres of Pyrmont sandstone standing on a headland that drops a further 30 metres to the water, and for the first seventy-three years of its life a keeper and his family lived in the cottage at the base of the tower.
The station was automated in 1934. It was decommissioned in 1978, when a modern navigation beacon was installed further along the cape. What was left behind was a handsome, damp, slowly failing building with nobody to unlock the door.
The Society formed in 1994 and holds a care-and-control licence over the tower and the keeper's cottage. We do not own the lighthouse, and we never will. We are simply the ones who turn up on a Saturday and open it.
- First lit
- 1 March 1861
- Material
- Pyrmont sandstone, iron gallery, bronze lantern frames
- Height
- 22 m from base to lantern, 74 steps inside
- Decommissioned
- 1978, when the new beacon was commissioned
- Operated by
- Cape Solander Lighthouse Society, by licence since 1994
The headland is the southern point of Kamay Botany Bay National Park. Between June and August, humpback whales pass within a few hundred metres of the tower on their way north.
Visiting
Getting up the headland
The tower is a short walk from the Cape Solander car park, past the whale-watching platform. There is no gate and no entry fee for the grounds.
Where
Cape Solander Drive, Kurnell NSW 2231. From the car park, follow the boardwalk and the whale-watching signs for about six minutes. The tower is on your left as the ground opens out.
When
Grounds: every day, sunrise to sunset. Museum and cottage: 10am to 3pm on weekends and public holidays. Guided tower tours: Friday, Saturday and Sunday, from 10.30am.
Access
The grounds, cottage and museum are step-free, with an accessible toilet and parking 140 m from the cottage door. The tower itself is 74 steps up a narrow 1861 stair with two low lintels. If that is not for you, ask a guide for the ground-floor film of the lantern room instead.
Cost
Grounds and museum entry are free. Tower tours are ticketed because the stair carries ten people at a time. Donations pay for lime mortar, glazing, insurance and the foundry bill.
Bring
A windproof layer, whatever the forecast says. The cape is the windiest public place on this coast and the gallery is open to the weather. Flat shoes for the stair, and no large bags above the gallery.
With children
Families are welcome, and the Keeper's Tour is designed for all ages. Children under eight cannot climb the tower, for their own safety and everyone else's, but the cottage has a touch table of brass fittings they are allowed to handle.
Guided tours
Three ways up the tower
Every tour is led by a trained volunteer guide who has climbed the stair more times than they would care to admit. Tower tours are capped at ten people and must be booked ahead, because the stair only takes one person at a time.
| Tour | Runs | Length | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Keeper's Tour | Saturday and Sunday, 11am | 45 minutes | $12 adult, $8 concession |
| Tower Tour | Friday to Sunday, hourly | 90 minutes | $28, $18 concession |
| Lantern Tour, after dark | First Friday of the month | 75 minutes | $34 |
| School and group booking | Weekdays by arrangement | 60 minutes | $6 per student |
- Family rate on the Keeper's Tour
- Museum entry is included with every tour
- Lantern Tours are cancelled in high wind
- Companion card holders free
Book by email at tours@capesolanderlighthouse.org.au or by phone on (02) 5550 1861. Leave a name, a date and how many are climbing; we will confirm within two days.
The keeper's cottage
A museum of the paperwork nobody else wanted
The cottage at the foot of the tower is two rooms and a verandah, and it holds the most complete run of lightstation records on this part of the coast. It is a small museum, run by people who would rather you asked questions than read every label, and there is a guide in the room almost all the time it is open.
- The station logbooks, 1861 to 1978, with daily weather readings kept in several different hands, and the keeper's own notes on the squall that put the lamp out for an hour.
- The brass clockwork that turned the lens, seized since the station was automated. We are raising money to have it conserved and running again.
- Items belonging to the Doyle family, who kept the light from 1911 until the last keeper left in 1934.
- Glass-plate and wet-plate photographs of the headland taken before the road was built.
- Storm lanterns, fog-signal gear, and the original brass door furniture from the tower.
- A chart table where you can trace the 1861 shipping channel and see what the keepers were actually watching for.
Reading room
The logbooks are fragile, so the originals stay behind glass. If you are researching a ship, a keeper's family or the weather, email us and a volunteer will scan the pages you need. There is no charge and no rush. We have answered questions from as far away as Bergen and Nova Scotia.
Restoration and watch
What the crew is doing this season
Restoring a sandstone tower beside the sea is mostly a contest with salt and water. Here is the honest state of the work.
Repointing the tower
The seaward face is being raked out and repointed in a lime mortar matched to the original. Three courses of nineteen are done, so this will take several more seasons and a great deal of mixing.
Lantern room glazing
The 1861 panes were replaced with laminated safety glass in 2021, and the bronze frames were re-bedded at the same time. Complete. Now the work is watching for condensation behind the frames.
Gallery railing
Two balusters and part of the handrail are being recast from the originals at a foundry in Sydney. The castings are poured; we are waiting on the machining.
The lens drive
The clockwork is with a conservator, partly dismantled and photographed. Funded to about sixty per cent. When it comes home we will run it slowly, on museum power rather than steam.
Condition watch
Every Saturday morning a rota walks the building, logs damp patches, reads the anemometer and photographs anything that has changed since last week. This is the least glamorous job here, and it is the reason the roof was fixed before it fell in.
Grounds and headland
Volunteers weed and replant with local native grasses, and keep the boardwalk edges from being trampled off the line during whale season.
Volunteering
About ninety people, and we need more
Some of our volunteers climb the tower four times a day. Some sit in the cottage with a laptop and a scanner, cataloguing logbooks. You do not need to know anything at all about lighthouses before you start; we will train you, insure you, and supervise you until you are confident.
- GuidesShow visitors through the cottage and up the tower. Full training given, and you shadow an experienced guide for your first four tours.
- Tower crewHelp run tours, check the stair and the handrail before each climb, and manage the head count on the gallery.
- RestorationStonemasons, carpenters, riggers and conservators especially wanted. Working bees run most Saturdays, weather permitting.
- CollectionCataloguing, scanning and caring for paper. If you like order, this is where you will be happiest.
- GroundsPlant, weed, and keep the headland's native grasses standing up to a million footsteps a year.
- EventsThe winter lantern festival, school visits, and the whale-season weekends, which are our busiest and best days.
Support us instead
If climbing stairs or shifting mortar is not your thing, membership and donations do just as much work.
- Household membership, $30 a year, including the quarterly bulletin and free tower tours.
- Concession membership, $15 a year.
- Donations are receipted. Every dollar goes to mortar, glass, insurance and the foundry.
Write to volunteer@capesolanderlighthouse.org.au, or simply come to the cottage on a Saturday morning and ask for the duty guide.
Contact
Talking to a person
The Society is run entirely by volunteers, so replies come when somebody has a spare evening. We get there in the end.
- Tourstours@capesolanderlighthouse.org.au · (02) 5550 1861
- Volunteeringvolunteer@capesolanderlighthouse.org.au
- Collectioncollection@capesolanderlighthouse.org.au
- PostPO Box 1861, Kurnell NSW 2231
- In personThe keeper's cottage, Cape Solander Drive, Kurnell. Saturdays, 10am to 3pm.
Coming by public transport
There is no bus to the cape. The nearest train station is Cronulla, then a taxi or a long walk from Kurnell village. Most visitors drive, and the Cape Solander car park fills early on winter weekends when the whales are running.
The Society is an incorporated association and a registered charity. Our annual report and audited accounts are available on request.