Green Cape Lighthouse, Lighthouse in New South Wales, Australia

Green Cape Lighthouse is a concrete tower rising 29 meters above the southern tip of New South Wales, marking the northern boundary of Disaster Bay. The structure stands at a headland with steep terrain and commands views across the Tasman Sea.

The structure was built in 1883 under architect James Barnet's design, making it the first concrete lighthouse in Australia. It represented a technological step forward in constructing navigation aids for one of the country's most hazardous coastlines.

Green Cape lies in the land of the Thaua people, whose territory ran from Merimbula south to the cape and west to the Dividing Range, divided between the coastal Katungal and the forest Baianbal. Matthew Flinders passed in 1798 and called the headland "the Cape". From the late 1830s the Imlay brothers ran pastoral and whaling operations at Twofold Bay, followed in the 1840s by Ben Boyd's short-lived Boyd Town.

The lighthouse stands at the tip of Green Cape, reached by road south of Eden; the final approach crosses the headland where drifting sand once buried the builder's tramway. The tower and its lightstation buildings sit on exposed ground above Disaster Bay, so wind and weather shape any visit. Walking the cape's paths gives views along the shore-hugging sailing route the light was built to mark.

The tower received Engineering Heritage National Landmark status in 2009, becoming Australia's first lighthouse to earn this recognition. This honor celebrates the innovative use of concrete in its construction.