Latitude 33° 16.9' S. Longitude 151° 34.7' E.

The Norah Head Lighthouse is located halfway between The Entrance and Budgewoi on the NSW Central Coast. The lighthouse was built in 1902-3 after the discoverer of Australia's first gold deposits, Edward Hargraves promoted the idea to the then NSW government following numerous shipwrecks in the area.
The lighthouse commenced operations in November 1903, 87 years after Australia's first lighthouse was constructed at Sydney Heads.
The tower stands 27 metres tall and has 96 steps leading to the top. The late 17th century optical prism has 77 lenses which using a bi valve system focus the light to a single beam.
The lighthouse was originally built at a cost of 19,000 pounds with a further 5,000 pounds for the rotating prism.
A vapourized kerosene burner drove the mechanism by which the light was rotated using a series of counterweights with the light floating in a bath of mercury to reduce friction. In 1928 the light was upgraded from 438,000 candlepower to 700,000 candlepower, able to be seen over 18 kilometes out to sea. The then speed of the rotating light at one revolution every 10 seconds proved problematic so in 1928 the light was slowerd to one revolution every 30 seconds although later this was reduced to one rotation every 15 seconds as is the case today.
In 1961 it was converted to mains electricity and the power increased to 1,000,000 candlepower.
The tower was automated and demanned in 1995 being the last manned lighthouse in NSW..