Vlamingh Head Lighthouse

The lighthouse was constructed between 1911 and 1912 after repeated shipwrecks on the North West Cape made a navigational warning light essential. All materials were brought by sea from Fremantle and carried ashore by horse-drawn tramway. The light first shone in November 1912, visible for up to 41 kilometres, and operated for sixty years until deactivation in 1969.

The lighthouse building itself is not open to the public, but the grounds are freely accessible and staffed with interpretation panels covering the history of the site, the Dutch explorer Willem de Vlamingh who first charted the cape in 1696, and the local flora and fauna. A short walk from the car park brings visitors to a wide coastal lookout with sweeping views across Lighthouse Bay and the Indian Ocean.

Humpback whales migrate through these waters in autumn on their way north, and again in spring heading south, and breaching or blowing animals can often be spotted from the headland without binoculars. Sunset here is consistently spectacular, with the cape oriented so that the sun drops directly into the ocean to the west.