Aug 14, 2025 The Other Light
We started our walk today from the other light, the ‘would-be’ lighthouse, known as Boyd Tower. It was built in 1848, financed by Benjamin Boyd, who was establishing the largest landholding enterprise in the colony of New South Wales.
It was supposed to become a lighthouse, but was never used in that capacity.
Ben Boyd was bankrupt by 1849 and left Australia (and his debts) to try his luck in the California goldfields, ultimately meeting his fate by murder in Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands in 1851, probably because of his propensity toward ‘blackbirding’, “the practice of coercing South Sea Islanders to work in circumstances akin to slavery.” The ‘lighthouse’ eventually became a whale spotting tower, used by the Davidson family who established a unique shore-based whaling station along the banks of Nullica Bay, one of the ‘folds’ of Twofold Bay.
We stopped on our way to our hike at The Seahorse Inn, built in 1843 as one of Ben Boyd’s ventures. It lay in disrepair for almost a century before finally being restored as a luxury boutique hotel!
We enjoyed coffees and muffins while walking the grounds and admiring the beachfront view. The blue headed bird in the stained glass panel in the upper right is the fairy wren, a beautiful, colorful gem of a bird we have seen everywhere we’ve been so far in eastern Australia!
The hike itself was awesome! Red rock inlets with sapphire blue waters! This is known as the Sapphire Coast!