Shameful to say, there are many parts of Sydney that I haven't visited or don't know very well. I've been using my PAD to get to some of them. On this occasion I decided to go to South Head, the southern entrance to Sydney Harbour. The intention was to get a shot of sunrise over the heads, marking the beginning of a new year.

I didn't quite make it there because looking out of my window as I drove along Old South Head Road I saw this sight and knew that it was the right one for me. It was the perfect shot for a theme of "new beginnings".

I therefore found a parking spot and pulled out the camera gear.

Macquarie Lighthouse marks the site of the oldest continuously operating navigational beacon in Australia. A flagstaff was erected here in 1791, not long after the arrival of the First Fleet in 1788. This was replaced by a coal fired beacon in 1793, and a lighthouse, designed by convict architect Francis Greenway, in 1816 at the request of Governor Lachlan Macquarie. Greenway warned that the lighthouse was going to have problems because of the quality of the sandstone used and he was right; by 1881 construction began on a new lighthouse (this one) using the same design as the old one but better materials. It was finished in 1883 and has been operating ever since.

At this time last year I didn't even know of the existence of this lighthouse. And certainly discovering it unexpectedly changed the way I thought I was heading. Funny how life can turn out that way.

(Incidentally, the only visible object in the sky beside the crescent moon and the glow of the new year's dawn is Venus, off to the left.)