Point Danger (Australia)

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Point Danger

Location: Gold Coast, Australia
Year first lit: 1971
Automated: 1971
Height: 20 meters
Elevation: 45 metres
Range: 18 nautical miles (33 km)

Point Danger is a high steep headland right on the border between Queensland and New South Wales, Australia, at the southern end of the Gold Coast. The headland separates Snapper Rocks/Rainbow Bay to the north, and Duranbah beach and the Tweed River mouth to the south.

The point was named by Captain Cook when he passed it on 16 May 1770. The danger in question was shoals about 5 miles (8 km) off the coast, and for which Cook also named Mount Warning.[1] There are reefs in that area. Fidos Reef, South Reef and Nine Mile (14 km) Reef are popular dive locations.[2] (Nine Mile is named for the round trip distance from the Tweed mouth.[3])

A road leads up the headland from the inland side (which is not so steep) and on top are,

  • A popular park and lookout.
  • Captain Cook memorial lighthouse.
  • Centaur Memorial and Walk of Remembrance
  • The Point Danger Volunteer Marine Rescue.
  • The southern end of the Gold Coast Oceanway

The lighthouse is in a modern style and was the first in the world in 1971 to experiment with lasers to increase its beam. The experiment was unsuccessful and it returned to conventional electric lamps.

The Centaur Memorial remembers the sinking of Australian Hospital Ship Centaur by a Japanese submarine on 14 May 1943. The Walk of Remembrance commemorates other ships lost to Japanese and German action during World War II and takes the form of plaques arranged in a semi-circle around the lookout fence.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Captain Cook's Journal During the First Voyage Round the World, available at Project Gutenberg.
  2. ^ Diving Australia, Neville Coleman and Nigel Marsh, 2003, ISBN 962-593-311-5, page 122.
  3. ^ 9-mile (14 km) Reef - Northern New South Wales page at Marinews

Coordinates: 28°10′S, 153°33′E