The lighthouse is not the official start of the Cape to Cape Track but the locals are really keen for you to go and touch it and photograph it at the start of your walk as a symbolic gesture.

Hamelin Bay has 11 shipwrecks in it, including two that were wrecked on the same night in the year 1900. You can see remnants of a timber jetty that goes a long way into the bay. Back in the late 1800’s this old jetty was used to ship karri logs to England, South Africa and India. Even today, many streets in London are still paved with karri that was harvested from local Western Australian forests. They jetty was abandoned when jarrah took over as the favoured timber.

The track is a narrow sandy track through the dunes and you’ll get beach views. The lovely stretch of white sandy beach is Redgate Beach. There’s a lovely stream meandering – Calgardup Brook. At times you may need to wade across this brook. “Calgardup” is an Aboriginal word for place of hooked stick to pull banksia flowers down with.

This region is the traditional land of the Wardani people and evidence of their living in this area goes back over 50,000 years. Schools of salmon migrate northwards along this coast in March and April each year and would have made good eating for the Wardani.

Alfred and Ellen Pickmore Bussell had six sons and eight daughters. One of their daughters, Grace, became famous as a 16 year old for her role in rescuing 50 passengers from the sinking ship, SS Georgette in 1876.

The campsite is set in a shady grove of melaleuca trees. There’s a toilet as well as two picnic tables.

The rocks in the distance are called Sugarloaf Rock. It’s a granite island shaped like a cone of sugar – the form in which sugar was sold in years gone by. This small rocky haven is the southernmost breeding site for small numbers of red-tailed tropic birds. These ocean birds are usually solitary, only coming together in small communities during nesting time.

Before this lighthouse was built, mariners relied on a barrel on top of a 30 foot pole in Busselton to mark the best landing place. They hung a lantern from the pole so it could be seen at night!

Cape Naturaliste lighthouse was completed in 1903. Limestone was quarried from about 1 mile away near Bunker Bay (where you will be staying) and carted by bullock wagon. The tower only needed to be 20 metres high as the bluff it’s built on is 100 metres high.