Cape Byron is the easternmost point of the mainland of

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

, located in New South Wales. It is about east of the town of

Byron Bay, New South Wales Byron Bay ( Minjungbal: ''Cavvanbah'') is a beachside town located in the far-northeastern corner of New South Wales, Australia (in Bundjalung Country). It is located north of Sydney and south of Brisbane. Cape Byron, a headland adjac ...

and projects into the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...

at 28.6335° S, 153.6383° E. A lighthouse is situated there. It is a popular area for hiking and for whale watching. Two national parks, one a conservation area and a marine park, are on the bay. Cape Byron has a significant influences on the open beaches to its north.

Longshore drift Longshore drift from longshore current is a geological process that consists of the transportation of sediments (clay, silt, pebbles, sand, shingle, shells) along a coast parallel to the shoreline, which is dependent on the angle of incoming w ...

transports sand northwards. Sand blocked by the cape drops off the

continental shelf A continental shelf is a portion of a continent that is submerged under an area of relatively shallow water, known as a shelf sea. Much of these shelves were exposed by drops in sea level during glacial periods. The shelf surrounding an islan ...

, which is very narrow here, at a rate of around 50,000 cubic metres of sand per year.

History

The cape was named by

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

explorer Captain

James Cook Captain (Royal Navy), Captain James Cook (7 November 1728 – 14 February 1779) was a British Royal Navy officer, explorer, and cartographer famous for his three voyages of exploration to the Pacific and Southern Oceans, conducted between 176 ...

, when he passed the area on 15 May 1770, to honour British explorer

John Byron Vice-Admiral John Byron (8 November 1723 – 1 April 1786) was a British Royal Navy officer and explorer. He earned the nickname "Foul-Weather Jack" in the press because of his frequent encounters with bad weather at sea. As a midshipman, he sa ...

who circumnavigated the globe in HMS ''Dolphin'' from 1764 to 1766. The MV ''Limerick'' was sunk off Cape Byron in 1943. The Cape is part of the Cape Byron State Conservation Area.

Cape Byron Light

Built in 1901, the Cape Byron Lighthouse is the last of the great 19th-century Victorian era lighthouses managed by the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS). It is constructed from concrete blocks and stands on the most easterly point of the Australian mainland. Byron Bay Leuchtturm

Cape Byron walking track

The Cape Byron walking track winds through the Cape Byron State Conservation Area. The loop walk can be started at any point with parking available at Captain Cook Lookout, Palm Valley, Wategos Beach and the Lighthouse.

Cape Byron Marine Park

Cape Byron is part of the 22,000 hectare Cape Byron Marine Park, which was established in November 2002.Cape Byron Marine Park
, Marine Parks Authority NSW. The area is also noted for its wildlife, with the

whale watching Whale watching is the practice of observing whales and dolphins (cetaceans) in their natural habitat. Whale watching is mostly a recreational activity (cf. birdwatching), but it can also serve scientific and/or educational purposes.Hoyt, E. ...

industry a significant contributor to the local economy. The park extends from

Lennox Head Lennox Head is a seaside village in the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales, Australia, situated on the stretch of coast between Byron Bay and Ballina in Ballina Shire local government area. It had a population of 7,741 in the 2016 Austra ...

in the south to northern bank of the Brunswick River mouth. Cape Byron Marine Park is a multiple-use marine park which includes protected areas where fishing and collecting are prohibited, and general-use areas which support both commercial and recreational fishing. It extends from the Brunswick River to Lennox Head, and from mean high water out to three nautical miles from the coast or islands. It includes the tidal waters of the Brunswick River, Belongil and Tallow creeks. Migrating whales can typically be seen swimming past the Cape.

Extreme points

Australia has several other

extreme points In mathematics, an extreme point of a convex set S in a real or complex vector space is a point in S that does not lie in any open line segment joining two points of S. The extreme points of a line segment are called its '' endpoints''. In lin ...

. These are Cape York, the northernmost point on the Australian mainland, South Point, the southernmost point on the Australian mainland,

Steep Point Steep Point is the westernmost point of mainland Australia. It is located within the Gascoyne region of Western Australia, north of the state's capital Perth, in the proposed Edel Land National Park. It is also a part of the Shark Bay World ...

, the westernmost point on the Australian mainland and

Mount Kosciuszko Mount Kosciuszko ( ; ; Ngarigo: ) is the highest mountain of the mainland Australia, at above sea level. It is located on the Main Range of the Snowy Mountains in Kosciuszko National Park, a part of the Australian Alps National Parks and ...

, the uppermost point on the Australian mainland.

References

{{1stVoyageCookAus

Byron George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron (22 January 1788 – 19 April 1824) was an English poet. He is one of the major figures of the Romantic movement, and is regarded as being among the greatest poets of the United Kingdom. Among his best-kno ...