NSWMining
Bulli
The first big pit on the northern Illawarra coast.
1861Bulli coal mine opens
WHAT STARTED IT
Coal seams outcrop high on the Illawarra escarpment here, only a short tramway run from the sea. The Bellambi and Bulli Coal Company drove a tunnel into the seam in 1861 and built a jetty at Sandon Point to load colliers.
WHAT SUSTAINED IT
By 1879 Bulli was described as the most important mine in the Illawarra, with 350 hands, and its miners led the push for a district miners’ union that year. In 1887 a gas explosion in the mine killed 81 men and boys.
TURNING POINTS
1861The company begins working the seam through a tunnel about 400 feet above sea level.
1863The tramway and jetty officially open on 2 June; the Ironside loads the first cargo.
1879Bulli miners lead the formation of a district miners’ union and are locked out by the company.
1887A gas explosion in the mine on 23 March kills 81 men and boys; on 21 June the railway station opens.
1907The centre of Bulli Jetty collapses in April, and a storm destroys the seaward end in June.
WHAT IT DOES NOW
A northern beachside suburb of Wollongong. The 1887 railway station houses the Black Diamond Heritage Centre, and a memorial in Park Road lists the men killed in the 1887 explosion.
KEEP READING · SOURCESWollongong City Libraries · BulliTrove · Evening News, 30 December 1878, ‘Meeting of Miners at Bulli’Trove · Evening News, 22 January 1879, ‘The Locked-Out Bulli Miners’Trove · Newcastle Morning Herald, 29 March 1887, ‘The Bulli Explosion’Trove · Evening News, 29 April 1907, ‘Collapse of Bulli Jetty’Trove · Australian Town and Country Journal, 19 June 1907, ‘Bulli Jetty Destroyed’NSW State Heritage Inventory · Bulli Railway Station GroupMonument Australia · Bulli Mine Disasters