Point Danger is a headland, located at the southern end of the Gold Coast on the east coast of Australia. Separated by Snapper Rocks and Rainbow Bay to the West, with Duranbah Beach and the Tweed River mouth to the south. Present-day Point Danger has also indicated the border between New South Wales and Queensland, Australia, since 1863.
The point is the location of the Captain Cook memorial and lighthouse, the Centaur Memorial and Walk of Remembrance, the Marine Rescue NSW Point Danger station, and the southern end of the Gold Coast Oceanway.
The Centaur Memorial remembers the sinking of Australian Hospital Ship Centaur by a Japanese submarine on 14 May 1943. The Walk of Remembrance commemorates other ships lost to Japanese and German action during World War II and takes the form of plaques arranged in a semicircle around the lookout fence.
History
Captain James Cook, upon encountering the eastern Australian coast and naming Rame Head (Victoria), then sailed up the coast to the famous Botany Bay. Continuing North from there, at about 5 pm on 16 May 1770 (log date) he encountered the reefs that run 3 nautical miles (5.6 km; 3.5 mi) east from Fingal Head and Cook Island. To avoid these reefs, formed by a lava flow from Mount Warning, Cook was forced to change his course to the east. Cook's log indicates his ship was "about 5 miles from the land". However having to pull away to the east to avoid the reefs, that we now know only run to sea from Cook Island, would indicate Cook was much closer to the point he named Point Danger.
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