A REPORTER and photographer from the Sydney Sun paid a visit to the villages of Scarborough and Clifton in 1911, giving a blow by blow description and capturing a glimpse of the terrible conditions the coal miners and their families endured at the time. The following detailed story, in one of Sydney’s most widely read…
ARMED with kerosene tins, protective clothing and old sugar bags, hundreds would head for the Illawarra escarpment during the months of January and February early last century for the annual blackberry harvest. Blackberry vines had become a troublesome pest, smothering the escarpment foothills and valleys late in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Although a…
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…
THE tradition of hospitality continues within the historic walls of what is known today as the Resin Brewery at Bulli. The recently restored heritage building has evolved into a speciality brewery, offering delicious meals and entertainment. Originally built as the Bulli Railway Guest House, this rare image depicts Sarah Heard, who greeted her countless guests…
By Phil Evans* The first National Service intake in 1965 included a number of Bulli 20-year-olds. Four are shown in the photo taken at Kapooka (Wagga Wagga) in September 1965 at the completion of their 10 week basic training. They are Roy Woods, Brian Farrar, Ted Towers and Phil Evans. Each had attended Bulli High…
THE need for housing materials, and a shortage of bricks, brought about the establishment of the Bulli Brick and Tile Company, and the building of a quarry and manufacturing plant on property south of Slacky Flat in 1948. Jack Gwyther, who also owned the Bulli Family Hotel and several butcher shops in the area, had…
One of the most charming spots in beautiful Illawarra, and one which is finding ever-increasing favour, is the picturesquely-situated township of Thirroul. As a seaside resort it cannot be excelled. Consequently a good deal of interest attaches to the forthcoming auction sale of Mr. George McCauley’s Wrexham Estate on Monday, October 4 (Eight hour Day).…
JUST how many local babies were brought into the world from Nurse Taylor’s purposely built ‘Hillside Private Hospital’ at Bulli will probably never been known. There would have been hundreds. One, I know, was my late uncle, James ‘Bing’ Orvad. While Nurse Taylor’s beautiful weatherboard cottage remains as a testimony to her dedication towards the…
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…
FOUR underground miners sadly lost their lives when they suffocated in the Old Bulli Colliery on November 9 1965 after a pocket of gas ignited causing a fire in a panel a few hundred metres from the main shaft. Three of the four miners died in shunt where the fire had started, and the fourth…
Passenger trains began travelling the magnificent engineering feat known as the Stanwell Park Viaduct in October 1920 when the rail deviation between Otford and Coalcliff was opened to traffic. The Hurstville Propeller reported on Friday 15 October 1920: OTFORD TUNNEL CLOSED. New Stanwell Park Station. At last the dreaded Otford Tunnel has been closed, and…
There was a touch of romance about the Australian bowls four-handed semi-final at City green today, B. Gordon, a member of the Woonona rink, leaving immediately after the game to be married. Woonona was beaten by South Africa by a narrow margin, but Gordon was still smiling when the game was over. “It certainly would…
Looking Back 