NSWMining
Corrimal
Coal from Brooker’s Nose made a township by the railway.
1884Colliery opens and a township is laid out
WHAT STARTED IT
A coal company opened a mine on Mount Corrimal, the escarpment point locally called Brooker’s Nose, and bought land by the planned Illawarra railway and the Bulli road. A township with a station reserve was laid out on the flat below.
WHAT SUSTAINED IT
Coke ovens were opened in 1886, a private line carried coal to the government railway from 1887, and new houses, a hall and a school followed. A colliery and coke works worked at Corrimal for a century, until the mine closed in 1985.
TURNING POINTS
1884Brooker’s Nose Colliery begins work, and a model township is laid out with a railway reserve.
1885The company plans coke works with an output of 600 tons a week.
1887The Illawarra railway opens, and Corrimal station is in use by November.
1912G. S. Yuill and Company open the Corrimal Colliery and new coke works.
1985Corrimal Colliery closes.
WHAT IT DOES NOW
A northern Wollongong suburb of about 7,000 people with a shopping strip on the Princes Highway. Streets ice cream began here in the 1930s, in Ted Street’s milk bar.