Redland Zone — Local History, 21 July 2026

Cleveland's 1864 lighthouse is older than the café next door by about 80 years. And the café is about to be demolished and rebuilt for the fourth time.

What's actually changing

The seafood restaurant upstairs and the fish & chippery takeaway are staying put — only the café component of The Lighthouse Restaurant is being transformed. The owners announced their "biggest transformation yet" on 15 July.

The 1864 lighthouse has been there for every version of the café on that site.

A timeline of the block

  • 1864 — the hexagonal timber lighthouse is built at Cleveland Point
  • 1880 — Cleveland's third hotel, the Pier Hotel, opens on the block next door
  • 1936 — the Pier Hotel burns down. The lighthouse doesn't move
  • 1986 — the site is renamed The Lighthouse Restaurant (it borrowed the name for a reason)
  • 2006 — major renovation
  • 2026 — the café component is demolished and transformed

And the 1864 timber tower is still standing in roughly the same spot, give or take 30 metres.

The owners are being poetic about it

"While buildings evolve, the memories people create inside them are what truly make a place special."

They've also promised to document the whole journey — "from the first day of demolition to the finishing touches" — on their blog, From the Point. So locals can follow along as the next chapter unfolds.

It's part of a bigger Cleveland Point play

The café transformation isn't happening in a vacuum. Redland Council paid $3.6 million in 2019 for three waterfront blocks right next door, with a stated goal of "boosting Cleveland Point's reputation as a regionally significant destination."

This isn't a standalone café renovation — it's a piece of a broader precinct upgrade.

About that lighthouse

It was one of the first lighthouses built in Queensland — a hexagonal timber tower designed to be moved, because the sand channels around the Point were constantly shifting.

The 38-foot tower ran on kerosene, then acetylene, then electricity (from 1934). A family named Troy kept the light for 50 years — the longest-serving lighthouse family in Australia.

Its second life

  • 1976 — the lighthouse is decommissioned and physically relocated 30 metres to make way for a new working light
  • 1987 — Redland Council restores it
  • 2009 — a Narnia film crew temporarily removes it to build a set on the exact spot. It's put back
  • Today — heritage-listed on the Queensland Heritage Register, one of only two surviving hexagonal timber lighthouses in the state

The takeaway

The café is on its fourth building. The lighthouse has watched every single one of them rise and fall. The tower is older than the café by 80+ years, and quieter about it. 🔦

Sources: Queensland Heritage Register; Redland City Council; The Lighthouse Restaurant announcement, 15 July 2026.