Wedding Cake Island is an island off Coogee Beach, Sydney, which protects the beach from most swells. It is also known as Lemo's Island.
The most probable source of the name is the shape of the island - it resembles a wedding cake, particularly when the white water breaks over the island, giving the appearance of 'icing'. Another theory is that bird droppings on the island gave the appearance of icing on a cake. Apparently the island was also formerly called Gingerbread Island.
The island is a good scuba diving spot and also is the site of ANZAC day commemorations by the local surf community. Every year in commemoration of ANZAC day, surfers load up their surfboards and backpacks with cartons of beer and drink, and paddle out on their boards from Coogee Beach to Wedding Cake Island.
In 1975, "Wedding Cake Island" was the title of a popular surf music instrumental single by Australian rock music band Midnight Oil, lead singer, Peter Garrett a local resident. The track was re-released in 1980 on the EP Bird Noises. It was also covered by the Australian surf group The Atlantics on the album Delightful Rain in 2006. The Atlantics often include it as part of their live set, with Midnight Oil's blessing.
Coordinates: 33°55′33″S 151°15′55″E / 33.9259°S 151.2654°E / -33.9259; 151.2654
Famous quotes containing the words wedding, cake and/or island:
“Our wedding day, twenty years ago! A happy day. Darling is handsomer than she was then, with a glorious flow of friendly feeling and cheerfulness, genuine womanly character, a most affectionate mother, a good, good wife. How I love her! What a lucky man I was and am!”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)
““It is such a beautiful day I had to write you a letter
From the tower, and to show I’m not mad:
I only slipped on the cake of soap of the air
And drowned in the bathtub of the world....””
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)
“An island always pleases my imagination, even the smallest, as a small continent and integral portion of the globe. I have a fancy for building my hut on one. Even a bare, grassy isle, which I can see entirely over at a glance, has some undefined and mysterious charm for me.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)