Sugarloaf Point Light, Lighthouse in Seal Rocks, New South Wales, Australia
Sugarloaf Point Light is a white cylindrical lighthouse on a rocky headland at the northern edge of Myall Lakes National Park, near Seal Rocks in New South Wales. The tower stands on a coastal outcrop and is listed on the Commonwealth Heritage List.
A committee of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly first recommended a light at Seal Rocks in 1863, but a tower on the rocks themselves proved impossible to build. In 1873 Captain Francis Hixson of the Marine Board adopted the Sugarloaf Point summit, and James Barnet drew his first lighthouse. John McLeod built it from 1874 to 1875, landing 1,800 tonnes of material over a 457-metre jetty; the light was first lit on 1 December 1875.
The Worimi people's territory runs from Maitland and the Hunter River south to Forster-Tuncurry north and Gloucester west. Scarred trees, campsites, burial grounds, middens and rock engravings in the Seal Rocks and Myall Lakes area record their hunter-gatherer life, with food drawn largely from the ocean. Coastal sites on land and water hold mythological and spiritual importance for the Worimi.
The lighthouse grounds are open year-round and visitors can walk around the headland on foot. Three restored keeper cottages on the site are available as holiday accommodation.
Sugarloaf Point Light is one of only two lighthouses in Australia where the spiral staircase runs on the outside of the tower rather than inside. This gives the structure a look found almost nowhere else along the Australian coast.
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