NSWMining
Clifton (NSW)
Built for the colliery where Illawarra coal was first found.
1877Coal Cliff miners’ village named Clifton
WHAT STARTED IT
Survivors of the Sydney Cove wreck found coal in these cliffs in 1797, where the escarpment meets the sea. In 1877 the Coal Cliff company built a jetty and a cliff slide, and put up cottages for its miners on a level piece of land nearby, naming the village Clifton.
WHAT SUSTAINED IT
By 1884 about 150 miners worked the colliery and the village had nearly 1,000 people, two hotels, a school and churches. Storms that wrecked the jetty forced the mine to close for a time, and after a long strike in 1910 men drifted to other collieries.
TURNING POINTS
1797Survivors of the Sydney Cove wreck find coal in the cliffs.
1877Cottages for the Coal Cliff miners are built, and the village is named Clifton.
1878The colliery opens, with steam colliers loading at a jetty in the open sea.
1887The railway from Wollongong opens to Clifton.
1911The present School of Arts is built, partly by striking miners.
WHAT IT DOES NOW
A tiny clifftop village of a few dozen residents, known for its School of Arts and the Sea Cliff Bridge, which opened in 2005 to replace the rockfall-prone road to Coalcliff.