St George's Lighthouse, Booderee

Visited: Autumn

Recommendation: The area around the lighthouse is small with a short walking track through the bush but there is plenty to see here. Most notably was the Eastern Bristlebird, with plenty of birds out in the open around the car park. 

We loved Booderee Botanical Gardens so much that we visited other areas on the Jervis Bay headland. Cave Beach and Ryan's Swamp has an interesting campground that was home to as many tame roos as campers and Green Patch had the most stunning beaches and woodland walks. But it was at the remote St George's Lighthouse that we had the most success and consequently, spent the most time. 

Designed by colonial architect Alexander Dawson, the lighthouse was built in 1860 from sandstone blocks quarried nearby. It stood 3 stories tall, with a tower reaching 18.5 metres and featuring eight rooms at the ground level. Despite its construction, the lighthouse was only active from 1860 to 1889 and was demolished in the early part of the twentieth century. The surrounding cliffs and the dramatic ruins make the area quite remarkable.

Eastern Bristlebird (Dasyornis brachypterus)

Our target here was to find the endangered Eastern Bristlebird. We had seen reports across the area but had had no luck in high winds and wet weather. But today, it was right place and right time. We found the birds on the edge of the car park pretty much as soon we started to walk the short track to the lighthouse. In total, over 3 hours we saw at least 6 individual birds and most incredibly, some were so unconcerned that they came within touching distance. Not bad for a lifer sighting!

The dominant honeyeater here was the New Holland and they were everywhere. They are an active and loud species, usually chasing and screeching at each other. I particularly like them for their fine moustaches. Common they may be but they are still beautiful and fascinating. 

From the lighthouse ruins was a very short loop track back to the car park. We wandered along here several times looking for honeyeaters sitting up, lizards in the sun and anything else that might turn up. We flushed a group of Brown Quail, much to my frustration. I got a few shots off before they disappeared into the bush.

All along the tracks here were robins, searching for insects and squabbling with each other. These confiding birds are widespread throughout the Eastern Seaboard and seem to be seen whereever there are trees or shrubs. 

There was a picnic table that I sat on for a while overlooking the cliffs to the south and there was lots of activity with Yellow-faced Honeyeaters, Bristlebirds, New Hollands, Welcome Swallows and Little Wattlebirds all zooming about and sometimes stopping to feed on the flowering banskia. A familiar buzzing call gave away the location of some White-browed Scrubwren and with some patience, they came out and sat on rocks close by to me. It was nice to hear them singing.

White-browed Scrubwren (Sericornis frontalis)

While it might have been nice to Swamp Wallaby, Eastern Grey Kangaroo and lizards at the other locations in the Booderee National Park, the lighthouse area was by far the most productive and interesting.