Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2020L01271:front:0:p11
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2020L01271
Segment Type: other
Provision Reference: 
Character Range: 28501–31391

on the north coast of NSW with a date estimate of 1440+/- 70 BP.

 Further consultation with traditional stakeholders will be undertaken to gain a greater understanding of Cape Byron's history. This plan will be updated in future versions to reflect the accumulation of information.

Early European history

 Captain Cook is believed to have been the first European to sight, record and name Cape Byron during his travels along what would become the New South Wales coast in mid-May 1770. Naming the Cape after fellow circumnavigator Vice-Admiral John Byron (1723–1786), it was also on this same day that Cook observed people walking along a beach believed to be just south of Byron 5.

 The region appeared to forgo further European interaction until 1828 when the Rainbow docked in Byron and the ship's master, William Johns, charted the bay. This remains the earliest known landing at Byron Bay 6.

  1 Boyd, W. E., et al, 'The accumulation of charcoal within a midden at Cape Byron, northern New South Wales, during the last millennium' Australian Archaeology (51) 2000, pg. 21; Pratten C., and R. Irving., Cape Byron Headland Reserve Heritage Study, (1991), pg. 10.

  2 Beaglehole, J.C., (ed.), The Journals of Captain James Cook on his Voyages of Discovery. I The Voyage of the Endeavour 1768- 1771, (Cambridge University Press), 1955; Brooks, G., and Associated Pty Ltd NPWS Lighthouses Conservation Management and Cultural Tourism Plan - Cape Byron Lighthouse: Supplementary Information, (2001) pg. 4.
  3  Stubbs, B.J., History of the Cape Byron Lightstation Precinct, Crown (2008) pg. 2.

On 25 June 1840, surveyor Robert Dixon travelled Design

through the Byron Bay region and recorded Designing the Cape Byron lightstation was a large interactions with a group of Indigenous hunters.              feat as not only was a design required for a tower, Throughout the 1840s, Byron Bay became a critical              but also for a surrounding precinct complete with point of access to shipping as cedar logs cut from              living quarters for both chief and assistant lighthouse
the hinterland were dragged through the shallows keepers. Initial designs were produced by James
and onto cargo boats waiting in deeper water. Barnet, renowned architect who was frequently In 1881, a walking trip from Ballina to Brunswick              engaged to design lightstations.
Heads took travellers through Byron Bay, and After his retirement as head colonial architect in 1890 European settlement in the area followed swiftly              however, the official blueprints for the lightstation thereafter. By 1886, the first government sale of land              precinct were completed by Charles Harding of the
in the area had occurred, and by the late 1880s, a Harbour and River Navigation Branch. The blueprints
jetty had been built 7. are believed to have been largely based