Beowa National Park

Beowa National Park protects 47km of rocky coastline in two sections either side of Twofold Bay, south of Eden on the Far South Coast — it was Ben Boyd National Park until it was renamed Beowa. Beneath the heath lie folded shales, sandstones, siltstones, conglomerates and quartzites of the Devonian Merimbula Group, about 360 million years old and among the oldest rocks exposed on the NSW coast, carrying fossil fish of international significance whose locations NPWS keeps unpublished. This is Thaua and Bidhawal country of the Yuin Nation. Middens, campsites, rock shelters, scarred trees and long-distance travel routes are recorded across the park, with the Disaster Bay to Green Cape stretch holding particular significance and continuing cultural value, and local Aboriginal communities actively recording and protecting that heritage.

The hook for walkers is the Light to Light walk: 32km one-way from Boyds Tower to Green Cape Lightstation over two to three days, with walk-in camps at Saltwater Creek and Bittangabee Bay. From September to early December, whales pass both lookouts heading south.

What to expect

Reviewed 26 October 2026

You reach the park's southern section by turning off the Princes Highway 18km south of Eden onto Edrom Road, then heading out on gravel towards Boyds Tower or Green Cape. NPWS describes the main visitor roads as 2-wheel-drive standard gravel and warns that Green Cape Road is unsealed, can be very rough and bumpy, and is shared with logging trucks. Once out of the car, the park presents as 47km of rocky coastline: north of Terrace Beach there are long sandy beaches, and south of there the coast is mostly cliffs broken by small bays. The Light to Light walk runs that coast, 32km one-way from Boyds Tower to Green Cape Lightstation over two to three days, on NPWS Grade 4 track with short steep hills, many steps and stretches of red rock platform. It crosses Saltwater Creek, Woodburn Creek and Bittangabee Creek, and those crossings are affected by tides, swell and flooding: rock platforms must be crossed at low tide, and in rough seas the route swings inland onto the old track from Bittangabee campground to Green Cape. Three sections make it manageable — Boyds Tower to Saltwater Creek (13.2km, 4.5–5.5 hours, Grade 4), Saltwater Creek to Bittangabee Bay (9km, 3–4 hours, Grade 3) and Bittangabee Bay to Green Cape (7km, 2–3 hours, Grade 4) — so you can walk one leg in a day or carry a pack for the whole thing.

The northern trailhead is Boyds Tower, 18km south of Eden on the Princes Highway and then about 15km along Edrom Road, with a gravel carpark holding 22 vehicles including one accessible space. The 0.8km return track is a wheelchair-accessible boardwalk out to the tower and its lookouts over Twofold Bay, where NPWS points you for humpbacks frolicking and feeding in the deep, protected water of the bay. The tower is one of the park's historic structures tied to its whaling, farming and lighthouse years, and the National Trust classifies it as a site of historical significance.

Underfoot and in the cliffs, the park is built on heavily folded shales, sandstones, siltstones, conglomerates and quartzites of the Devonian Merimbula Group — around 360 million years old and among the oldest rocks exposed on the NSW coast. At Green Cape the strata run red, brown and green, and the Devonian is called the Age of Fishes for good reason: this coast has yielded fossils of international scientific significance, including a previously unknown air-breathing lobe-finned bony fish up to 1.5m long, preserved in a floodplain drying event 360 million years ago. NPWS deliberately does not publicise the fossil locations because they are vulnerable to damage. The Pinnacles in the northern section are softer material — white sand capped with red gravelly clay, actively eroding in a steep gully.

South of Terrace Beach the character changes: the long beaches stop and the coast becomes cliffs broken by small bays. Disaster Bay Lookout looks straight out over that — a long sandy bay ringed by forested headlands, with slopes dropping steeply into the bay off Haycock Hill. At the far southern end stands Green Cape Lightstation, the destination of the Light to Light walk and part of the Green Cape Maritime precinct on the State Heritage Register, significant for its place in Australia's system of lights and its association with NSW Colonial Architect James Barnet. The keepers' cottages and the Telegraph Station bunkhouse sit within the precinct, and NPWS keeps the carpark, lookout and walking tracks open even when the accommodation itself is closed for works.

You share the coast with a lot of wildlife. The Green Cape area alone records 50 native mammals and nearly 150 bird species, and the Light to Light walk passes country for eastern ground parrots — they call at dawn and dusk — southern brown bandicoots, kangaroos, wallabies, wombats and echidnas; north of the Pambula River there is an important population of yellow-bellied gliders, best detected by their calls. The heaths around Green Cape and Saltwater Creek concentrate the park's biogeographically significant plants, including the vulnerable leafless tongue orchid, and winter brings banksias into bloom along the track. This is also Aboriginal country with a continuous, living history: middens, campsites, rock shelters, scarred trees and long-distance travel routes are recorded throughout, the Disaster Bay to Green Cape stretch carrying particular significance, and the Eden Local Aboriginal Land Council runs guided cultural tours that include a smoking ceremony at Jigamy and a walk along part of the Bundian Way.