The Lighthouse

Cape Otway Lightstation is the oldest surviving and most important lighthouse in mainland Australia.  Built-in 1848, the lighthouse perches on towering sea cliffs 90 metres above the ‘Shipwreck Coast’, where Bass Strait and the Southern Ocean collide.

This is one of the most treacherous stretches of coastline anywhere in the world, littered with the wrecks of hundreds of ships.  Many lives were lost in these shipwrecks off Cape Otway – a sad but fascinating history that led to the building of the Lightstation.

But there’s more than just a lighthouse here at Cape Otway.  Hidden away behind the lighthouse, is a World War 11 secret bunker – so secret that there are only three photographs of it from the war.  When it was built in 1942 it played a significant role in Australian and American war history. There’s an amazing story to be told here.