Bellambi - History

Land grants

In 1824 Moses Brennan received permission to occupy 800 acres in a small tract of land named Bullambee.

Miss Harriet Overington held a grant of 2000 acres called Bellambi or Palamba. She later married James Stares Spearing who secured two properties of 1000 acres on the slopes of Mount Keira known as Paulsgrove. The Bellambi grant faced a small bay that was used for many years to ship cedar. It later became an important coal shipping centre.

A village was established on Mrs Spearing's grant in 1842 after its subdivision. The port became a rival coal port to Wollongong in the 1860s and a great deal of timber still remained on the property into the 1870s. (Cousins, 1994)

Early residents

Pat Geraghty

Pat Geraghty arrived in the Illawarra area in 1828 at the age of twenty five. He settled in the Bellambi - Bulli district. Pat Geraghty was the first man to bring a wheeled vehicle down the mountain. Pat and his brother Jim spent many years hunting down bushrangers who infested the coast.

Pat Geraghty had fourteen children and one of his daughters became Mrs Michael Cawley of Bellambi. (Long, 1980)

Cawley Family

The Cawley family came to Australia in 1842 from Ireland. They were originally involved in business in Sydney and later engaged in business at Charcoal Creek (Unanderra). In 1846 John Cawley retired from business and took up land at Bellambi.

His five sons also took up land at Bellambi at the same time. The eldest son Michael married Jane Geraghty and they had five sons and five daughters. When Michael and Jane first lived at Bellambi they had a farm and an orange orchard. The land was eventually subdivided and Michael had to pay the full cost of putting a road through this road was named Keerong Avenue.

After Michael's death the land was divided between his five sons. They retained the land and sold it at various times, most left to establish orchards and farms in the Richmond River area.

John Cawley left 64 acres of land to the Catholic Church, this land left to the Marist Fathers became the site of the Holy Cross College for girls and St. Paul's College for boys.

The Cawley family also donated Cawley Park in Russell Vale to the Wollongong Council in 1939. The Cawley family once owned all of Bellambi. (Illawarra Mercury, 1972, 1940)

Early industry

Coal Mining

In 1857 Thomas Hale opened a mine at Bellambi. In addition to opening the mine Mr Hale constructed a jetty at Bellambi from which to ship the coal.

The first load of coal from Bellambi was shipped by the cutter 'Trial' which took coal to Sydney to be used by the steamer 'Washington'. "He also arranged for a wooden tramway to be constructed from the mine to the jetty and along the jetty to the loading places." (Cousins, 1994 The Garden of New South Wales p. 166)

By 1858 Mr Hale had two cutters, two schooners and a barque for his coal trade at Bellambi. He started the Illawarra's intercolonial trade with shipments to Adelaide and Launceston. Around 1858 Henry Osborne of 'Marshall Mount' purchased half of Mr Hale's Bellambi property for 7000 pounds.

Later in 1862 the coal mine became insolvent and the mine and leases were sold. (Cousins, 1994)

The mine then lay undeveloped until the Bellambi Coal Company Ltd. was constituted in 1888. This company had capital of 60 000 pounds to open and develop the Bellambi coal mine.

In 1901 the directors of the company decided to purchase the adjoining South Bulli Colliery. The company developed its own fleet and by 1908 the "Bellambi", a new steamer was built to its own design, it had a capacity of 1600 tons.

"The company commenced the electricity supply to the Bulli Shire on 3rd June, 1913, so in a matter of 25 years the company had not only developed a colliery but had established a power plant…" (Local Cuttings File)

The company's number 1 shaft was sunk and coal was struck on 12th January 1929. By 1934 the company's locomotive hauled coal to Port Kembla for the first time.

The South Bulli mine is still in operation today and has had a significant influence on the development of Bellambi village and the northern suburbs of Wollongong. "Since a coal mine was first opened, back in the 1850's, Bellambi has bound its destiny tight with the mining industry." (Daily Mercury, July 31 1968, p.17)

Early transport

Railways

When Thomas Hale first opened his coal mine the principle of the self acting incline was adopted to lower the loaded coal skips down the steep hillside to the valley floor where they were unloaded. The coal was then transferred to bullock drays and conveyed to the village at Bellambi Point. It was then loaded into rowing boats for transfer to schooners and other small craft anchored under the lee of Bellambi Point.

Thomas Hale had a low, woodpile jetty constructed into six feet of water at low tide on the western side of Bellambi Point. A sharp nosed punt then replaced the rowing boats.

Mr Hale then built a tramway from the foot of the incline to the Bulli - Wollongong Road (now Princes Highway) and the line was later extended to the jetty at Bellambi. Work on the line commenced in 1858 and the course of the tramway followed the bush road used by the bullock teams when hauling coal form the mines. When completed the tramway had a total length of two and a quarter miles.

After the colliery was taken over by the Bellambi Coal Company a new gauge railway was built following the course of the old wooden tramway. The first locomotive to run on the line was a small engine built in 1879. (Clarke, 1968))

Roads

In 1844 a pass up the mountain was discovered by Captain Westmacott. This became known as Westmacott's Pass and later Bulli Pass. It was the main entry to the Illawarra from the north. In 1868 a wheeled vehicle was taken up Bulli Pass. (Cousins, 1994))