THE building presently located at 355 Prince Highway, Woonona was built as a motor garage by Clyde George Nott in 1921, meaning it is now over a century old. Nott, who also ran a rubber factory at Wollongong, had a petrol bowser pump placed on the footpath outside the garage in 1925. Nott died suddenly…
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…
MANY folk of the old Bulli Shire were eagerly awaiting their influenza inoculations in 1919. Between January-September 1919, pneumonic influenza, commonly known as the ‘Spanish Flu’, killed 6,387 people in New South Wales, infecting as many as 290,000 in Metropolitan Sydney alone. The Spanish flu infected 500 million people – about a third of the…
THERE’S a small Woonona park that seems to have been forgotten in time. Less than four months after the declaration of the end of World War II, Thomas Pendlebury Rest Park was officially opened by the Bulli Shire Council president, Con Quilkey on December 1 1945. It could have easily had a different name, with…
During the 1990s I photographed quite a few business places in Woonona shopping centre. While the quality of the photographs are not the best, they will undoubtedly bring back many memories to some readers, of a time when Woonona boasted several banks, a selection of eateries and supermarkets. Sit back and enjoy the following slide…
Slide Show: The soldiers camped at Nicholson Park, Woonona, and taking part in the drill at Woonona beach. Note the Bellambi Jetty in the background of a number of pictures. Pictures: State Library of NSW. THOUSANDS of military men made camp on Nicholson Park, Woonona in February and March 1939 to take part in a…
Madge Hope, the 15-year-old daughter of Mr. and Mrs. R. Hope, of Campbell street, Woonona, threw herself off the Sydney Harbour Bridge on the morning of Wednesday November 8 1933. The teenager survived to tell the tale, with reports saying that her large dress had saved her life. Madge was said to have had “a…
Cake for blind boy The two girls also gave Teddy Johnston jazz caps, trumpets, nuts, sweets and balloons. The gifts will enable Teddy to entertain about 30 friends at a Christmas party. The boy, who lives at Woonona, near Bulli, has been slowly going blind. Eight months ago he started to take epileptic fits. He was discharged…
NURSE Mary Jarrett was a well known and highly respected midwife in Woonona. She like Nurse Cram, who ran a private hospital on the Prince’s Highway, where the Mines Rescue Station is located, and Nurse Hobbs, whose hospital was located behind the old Woonona Post Office, ran lying in hospitals where many local children were born.…
Woonona’s Marjorie Jones, which the Sydney Daily Telegraph described as being 18 years of age, was 5 feet 6 inches tall, had a bust of 33 inches, a waist of 25 inch, hips 33 inches and weighing 8 stone 12 pounds, was a brunette, with brown eyes. She was one of the newspapers “Beach Girls…
WORD OF ADVICE is given to new National Service trainees for the Navy by A/B R. Hopkirk, after their arrival at the Balmoral Naval Station. They are (from left) Arthur Ratley, 19, of Woonona; Allan Turton, 18, of Stockton; and Aldo Spagnola, 19, of Clifton. – The Newcastle Sun August 5 1952 Would you like…
Would you like to make a small donation towards the running of the Looking Back and Bulli & Clifton Times websites? If you would like to support my work, visit my donation page where you can leave a small tip of $2, or several small tips, just increase the amount as you like. Your generous patronage of…
Looking Back 