By Jack Devitt * THE railway line coming down from the South Bulli Colliery at Bellambi crossed the Princes Highway via a set of power operated gates (the control tower of the same preserved). The line ran parallel to Bellambi Lane, which was then only a lane, past the Bellambi pub and across the Government…
By Jack Devitt * THE bitumen road, built by the Main Roads Department, reached Bulli from Sutherland in 1928. Every road in the district at the time was either blue metal or a dirt track. The sealing of the main road was a huge undertaking; men camped along the route on the top of the…
By Jack Devitt * ALTHOUGH I always lived in Bulli, I had quite an association with Corrimal with their rugby league team. Due to some mismanagement of the Woonona team in 1935, the league disbanded the club and a number of us joined up with Corrimal in 1936 under a tough old playing coach named…
NOT even a reigning monarch could shift old Bandy Sam from his bush humpy at Slacky Flat, Bulli. Although authorities were eventually successful in clearing the shanty town of unemployed men and low income families from the blackberry and weed infested flat named after the coal waste that had been progressively washed down from the…
WHEN we first came to the coast in 1921, William (Billy) Murphy had the only bus run from Austinmer to Wollongong. The bus was a Model-T Ford, with seats around the sides and back. There were no windows, except the windscreen and a tiny one at the back. In wet weather, rolled-up blinds were…
Down Memory Lane With JACK DEVITT * I CAN remember as a very small boy hearing Sid Marsh’s centurion voice barking commands as he drilled men and youths in Bulli Park in the early 1920s. We lived at the corner of Farrell Road and Artis Street at the time and Sid’s voice could be heard…
By MICK ROBERTS © MORE than a century of sawmilling at Bulli came to an end in May 2013 with the closure of Molloy’s Timber Yard. Austrian-born cabinetmaker Gunter Grafenauer operated Molloy Timber with his wife, Pamela, for 38 years before shutting the long-operating business. Mr Grafenauer bought the timber business in 1975 from the Molloy family,…
Down Memory Lane With JACK DEVITT* GRANNY Orton had a small shop and residence in Park Road Bulli, still existing now (1990s) as a hair hairdressing salon next door to Dr. Feneley’s former surgery. She sold pencils, exercise books, rubbers for school kids plus a few jars of jelly beans, boiled ollies and, from Arnotts…
Looking Back 