Nine kilometres off Narooma on the New South Wales south coast, about twenty minutes by boat, there is an island with no cars, no shops and no road. Barunguba Montague Island can only be reached on one of the vessels contracted by National Parks; nobody may simply motor out and land. At the top of it stands a lighthouse built of granite quarried on the island itself, designed in 1873, built between 1878 and 1881 and officially lit on the first of November that year. You can climb the stairs inside it on a guided tour. Below it sit the two keeper's cottages, and this is the part that surprises people: you can stay the night in them. The head keeper's cottage, built in 1881, has five bedrooms and sleeps up to ten. The assistant keeper's cottage has three bedrooms and sleeps six. Both include the boat across and a guided walk around the island.
The island is not quiet. Up to eight thousand little penguins live there at any one time, coming ashore at dusk between September and February. Hundreds of seals haul out year round. More than ninety species of bird have been recorded, with between fifteen and nineteen breeding there, and three species of shearwater alone raise more than twelve thousand chicks a year. Whales pass through between September and November. The island carries deep significance for the Yuin people, who travelled there for ceremony and for food and used it as a men's teaching place; National Parks records that Barunguba, pronounced bar-ran-goo-ba, is the eldest son of Gulaga and a brother to Najunuka, and the island was declared an Aboriginal Place in June 2018. One thing to know before you get excited: the reserve is closed for the whole of August. If this sounds like your kind of night, it is one to plan rather than one to dash out and do, and penguin season does not begin until September anyway.
Our short take: island, cottage and wildlife details from NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service. Lighthouse construction dates, the architect James Barnet, NSW Colonial Architect, and the island granite quarry are recorded on the NSW State Heritage Register. Landing tours run with Montague Island Adventures and Narooma Charters. Cover photograph: Christina Senn, gifted to Earth to Sea News. Island photograph: AYArktos, Wikimedia Commons, public domain.