The Bulli Times

RESIDENTS have begun a campaign to have a crucial footpath “missing-link” completed along Point Street, Bulli. The local community have long advocated for the completion of the footpath on Point Street between O’Brien Street (West) and Southview Streets to ensure safe pedestrian access and have launched an online change.org petition. The current conditions force pedestrians and cyclists to…

The 5.6 hectares added to the southern boundary of the Royal National Park at Stanwell Park. A LAND transfer of 5.6 hectares of Stanwell park coastal bushland has extended Royal National Park, securing a key missing link for the Great Southern Walk. The land transfer allows the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) to establish a critical stretch of the 67km Great Southern Walk by…

A long-held community ambition to complete a ‘green corridor’ linking the escarpment and McCauleys Beach is a step closer to being realised after Wollongong City Council resolved to acquire seven hectares of land at Thirroul for the nominal cost of $1. The acquisition will bring the environmentally and culturally significant site into public ownership, linking the vegetated Hewitts, Woodlands,…

Picture: Sydney Benjamin Glass. Enhanced from a newspaper picture published in the Australian Town and Country Journal, July 13, 1910. This young ‘fella’ made quite a name for himself. Sydney Benjamin Glass was born in Bulli in 1892, the son of Bulli pioneers, Jacob and Anna Glass. Master Glass’ parents ran the local general store, a stone’s throw from Bulli Public School, where he studied.…

THE first telephone communication and local exchange was established at Bulli Railway Station in 1906. Prior to this, community members and local politicians, led by local real estate agent, Henry Cotterell, actively lobbied the government to connect Bulli to the telephone. The Illawarra Mercury reported on  July 24 1888 that the secretary of the Bulli Progress Committee had been directed to…

James Waterworth on the road to Bulli from Campbelltown in the 1870s. This image has been enhanced, altered and coloured from an original photograph of Waterworth on his first coach. James Waterworth During the discussion over the carrying out of the verdict in the case of the unfortunate woman Louisa Collins*, the name of Mrs. Brownlow, who was executed at Goulburn, has been frequently…

“How the Car looked after it had been straightened up again. This picture shows the wheel that gave way. Five persons were injured in the accident, and were very close to death, for the car, after overturning came to rest against the fence overhanging a drop of hundreds of feet. The accident occurred on Sunday, halfway down the Pass.” – Sydney Evening News, October 12, 1922. Picture enhanced and…

Safety men with their horses one mile underground. The safety men were the only men working at the South Bulli mine yesterday. Brisbane Telegraph, August 3, 1937. * Picture enhanced, coloured and improved from old newspaper print. Pit ponies in Australian underground collieries were essential, hardworking animals that hauled heavy loads of coal skips and equipment through narrow, dark tunnels…

“Typical swagman”. Picture: Australian Town and Country Journal, December 19, 1896. Enhanced and coloured with AI technology from original newspaper print. A swagman, or ‘swaggie’, was a transient Australian worker of the late 19th and early 20th centuries who travelled by foot between farms and towns seeking casual, seasonal labor. They carried their belongings in a bedroll known as a “swag”…

Publican of the Homebush Hotel, Jack Cotterell. June Cotterell, the licensee’s daughter, who has charge of the saloon bar, takes a hand in issuing the bottled beer ration to happy customer W. H. J Roberts. AT least one of Sydney’s publicans has found a way of giving his customers a “fair go,” and if he refused the chance of a blackmarket fortune in the process he has no regrets about it. This…

A boy with his favourite pit pony at the North Bulli Colliery, Coledale, NSW. Picture: The Sydney Mail February 1 1905. * Image enhanced and coloured from original newspaper print. Read more about the North Bulli Colliery at the Looking Back story: North Bulli Colliery, Coledale Free subscription to Looking Back Type your email… Subscribe

“A team in the back country” Picture: Australian Town and Country Journal, December 16, 1899. * Image enhanced and coloured from original newspaper print Free subscription to Looking Back Type your email… Subscribe

“Sydney beer was the main attraction for these visiting American sailors. Pictured at a city hotel soon after they had been granted leave are (from left to right) E. H. Johnson, M. H. Longer, and W. H. Clark.” PICTURE & WORDS: Sydney Daily Mirror, December 15, 1947. * Image enhanced and coloured from original newspaper print. Free subscription to Looking Back Type your email… Subscribe

“On no existing gold fields is the cyclist of such service as on those of West Australia. Many of the outlying mining properties are miles beyond all post or telegraphic communication, and here the “express” cyclist steps in and becomes post-man said dispatch-carrier from the different townships. Coolgardie, the gold fields capital, is the headquarters of the “express” corps, and daily one or…

As that old saying goes… all good things must come to an end. As a retired journalist, I’ve truly enjoyed bringing you online news, information and history from Illawarra’s north for over a decade. It’s kept me in touch with a profession that’s been kind to me for over 35 years. From that fateful day in 1987 when I wandered into a Thirroul newspaper office and offered the Wollongong Northern…

Wishing our readers a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Thank you for your continuing support over the years! PAYPAL TIP JARYOU can support The Bulli and Clifton Times with a donation through PayPal. Your generous patronage of my work and research, however small it appears to you, will greatly help me with my continuing costs, and help support independent journalism and local news media.…

Be on Santa’s nice list and make sure you do the right thing with your waste over the festive season. Wollongong City Council is reminding residents to only fill your FOGO bin with food and garden waste, recycle what you can, and only put landfill-destined items in the red-lid bin. If you are unsure where something belongs, check Council’s A-Z Recycling Guide. Here’s some essential waste and…