Cape Byron is the easternmost point of the mainland of
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
, 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 the state of New South Wales, Australia on Bundjalung Country. It is located north of Sydney and south of Brisbane. Cape Byron, a hea ...
and projects into the
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...
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) along a coast parallel to the shoreline, which is dependent on the angle incoming wave direction ...
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 island ...
, which is very narrow here, at a rate of around 50,000 cubic metres of sand per year.
History
![A175, Cape Byron, New South Wales, Australia, 2007](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/55/A175%2C_Cape_Byron%2C_New_South_Wales%2C_Australia%2C_2007.JPG)
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.
** Britishness, the British identity and common culture
* British English, ...
explorer Captain
James Cook
James Cook (7 November 1728 Old Style date: 27 October – 14 February 1779) was a British explorer, navigator, cartographer, and captain in the British Royal Navy, famous for his three voyages between 1768 and 1779 in the Pacific Ocean an ...
, 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.
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
![MostEasterlyPointAustralianMainland](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2a/MostEasterlyPointAustralianMainland.jpg)
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. 2 ...
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 Aus ...
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 number, real or Complex number, complex vector space is a point in S which does not lie in any open line segment joining two points of S. In linear programming problems, an extreme po ...
. 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 W ...
, the westernmost point on the Australian mainland and
Mount Kosciuszko
Mount Kosciuszko ( ; Ngarigo: , ), previously spelled Mount Kosciusko, is mainland Australia's tallest mountain, at 2,228 metres (7,310 ft) above sea level. It is located on the Main Range of the Snowy Mountains in Kosciuszko National ...
, the uppermost point on the Australian mainland.
See also
*
List of Australian places named by James Cook
References
{{1stVoyageCookAus
Byron
George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron (22 January 1788 – 19 April 1824), known simply as Lord Byron, was an English romantic poet and Peerage of the United Kingdom, peer. He was one of the leading figures of the Romantic movement, and h ...
Northern Rivers
Extreme points of Australia
Byron Bay, New South Wales