Lighthouse keeper's cottages, Byron Bay: Lighthouse fantastic

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Lighthouse keeper's cottages, Byron Bay: Lighthouse fantastic

Gale force ... a lighthouse keeper's cottage.

Gale force ... a lighthouse keeper's cottage.

Simon Webster enjoys the silence on top of Cape Byron.

YOU'D imagine there would be certain downsides to staying in a lighthouse keeper's cottage, such as the close proximity to an extremely large light revolving all night long.

Fortunately, the lighthouse keeper's cottages at Cape Byron have thick curtains. They also have walls made of thick, rendered concrete blocks that lend a reassuring sense of solidity when a gale is trying to blow the house down.

Retro in the kitchen.

Retro in the kitchen.

However much the tempest rages, you can lie in bed comfortable and warm, secure in the knowledge that, thanks to the lighthouse, no ships are going to be wrecked in the storm. And thanks to the fact you're just a tourist, no one is going to ring you in the middle of the night to say the globe needs changing.

Byron Bay is full of accommodation that takes advantage of the spectacular local geography but here is a location that truly can claim to be unique: in a state conservation area on a cliff virtually surrounded by breathtaking coastline, where the gargantuan island of Australia pokes out a skinny finger to its easternmost point.

Between stunning sunrises and sunsets it's a spot that can draw a crowd but after dark the lucky few who stay in the lighthouse keeper's cottages get the place all to themselves. And in the dead of night, with no sound but the wind howling in the chimneys and the waves pounding the rocks below, it could almost be 1901 again.

In that year, when the kerosene lamp of the lighthouse swept across the Pacific Ocean for the first time, the local township was already a happening place.

With a school, a church, two hotels, a telegraph office and a train station, Byron Bay would have been a culture shock for the first head light keeper, William Warren.

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"Byron's become so commercialised," the locals probably told him. "You should have seen it back in the '70s. Those were the days."

Warren had two assistant light keepers. The light was turned with a weight-and-pulley system that needed to be cranked hourly during the night and the men worked in shifts. They each had a wife, and between them 13 children, in their little community up there on the cliffs. Each school day, the children took the dangerous track down to Byron Bay to learn their lessons. At least back then there weren't too many joggers to compete with.

More than a century later, the lighthouse continues to warn sailors of their proximity to big, jagged rocks that will turn their boats to driftwood. However, it is electricity rather than kerosene that powers the light and the lighthouse is fully automated.

This means the lighthouse keeper's cottages are vacant and while the head keeper's cottage is home to an information centre and gift shop, the two assistant keepers' cottages have become holiday rentals, restored and managed by the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS).

Each adjoining cottage has three bedrooms (two with queen beds and one with two singles), a lounge, modern bathroom and a backyard with a barbecue and a flat, green lawn on which the kids can do cartwheels. Well, at least that's what our kids did.

The decor is old-fashioned and the furnishings good quality but minimal, in keeping with the lifestyles of the lighthouse keepers of yore. However, the cottages are certainly comfortable, with a few concessions having been made to the needs of soft, modern folks. The flat-screen TV, for example, is not technically a period piece. Nor are the electric heaters, the stereo or the automatic washing machine.

The view from the laundry in one of the lighthouse keeper's cottages, funnily enough, is the best in the house - straight down the length of Tallow beach.

Unlike modern houses with their open plans and enormous windows, this heritage-listed building wasn't built with views in mind. Other than hanging out in the laundry, you have to step outside to take in the vistas.

The 360-degree views of beaches, mountains and bush really are extraordinary, whether under brilliant blue skies or with dark clouds rolling in. Scanning the water for whales is usually profitable between May and November - they come close to shore here on their annual migrations - and dolphins are a common sight. If you get sick of looking out to sea for wildlife, have a glance immediately below; there's a fair chance you'll catch a goat nonchalantly munching its way along the steep cliff walls.

As a guest in the cottages you feel spectacularly and wonderfully isolated - especially after dark when the day trippers have gone home.

Yet the nearest beach, Wategos, is just a 10-minute walk away and the beaches, bars and baubles of Byron Bay itself are a 30-minute descent by foot, or five minutes in a car.

Walking tracks include a descent to a dramatic peninsula at Little Wategos beach, and a 3½-kilometre circular route that takes in Wategos, the famous surf break The Pass and the Captain Cook Lookout.

There's also the opportunity to climb the lighthouse: tours take place on Tuesdays and Thursdays and Saturdays in summer.

If all that climbing up and down seems too much effort, the NPWS also owns four restored 1920s beach cottages in prime positions on nearby Clarkes beach.

Built on mining leases, the shacks were owned by working-class people who wanted a cheap place to stay at the seaside. They can be booked through the same real estate agency that handles the lighthouse cottages.

The writer was a guest of the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service and the Cape Byron Trust.

Trip notes

Where Cape Byron, Byron Bay, NSW. Book through The Professionals real estate agency, (02) 6685 6552, byronbaypro.com.au.

How much From $1100 for a three-night weekend or four-night midweek stay in non-holiday periods, rising to $3850 a week at New Year.

Top marks Thick walls keep the elements at bay.

Black mark The only ocean views are from the laundry.

Don't miss The walk down to Little Wategos beach.

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