Nobbys Lighthouse evolves to become a beacon of creativity

"The biggest gift that the lighthouse gives is what they writer gives themselves," Hunter Writers' Centre director Katherine McLean says of the Lighthouse Arts residency program. Picture by Simone De Peak

You'd be hard pressed to find a more recognised Novocastrian landmark than Nobbys-Whibayganba Lighthouse.

For thousands of years, the enormous headland where the operational lighthouse now rests was an island of significance to local Aboriginal people. Convicts finished building Macquarie Pier (constructed with stone from the headland) in 1846, and just over 10 years later the lighthouse and the nearby cottages were built.