NSWPort & river
Port Kembla
A colliery jetty grew into the Illawarra’s heavy-industry harbour.
1883Coal jetty opens at Red Point
WHAT STARTED IT
The Mount Kembla coal company needed a deep-water loading point, so it ran a railway from its mine to a jetty on the beach north of Red Point. The name followed the coal: the area once called Red Point became known as Port Kembla after the mine that supplied it.
WHAT SUSTAINED IT
After the state chose Port Kembla as the deep-water port for the Illawarra coalfields, breakwater work began in 1900 and copper works were built from 1908. The Hoskins steelworks arrived in the late 1920s and became Australian Iron & Steel, turning the town into a major industrial centre.
TURNING POINTS
1883The Mount Kembla Coal and Oil Company’s railway and jetty enter service; the first coal is shipped on 27 February.
1898The Port Kembla Harbour Act, passed on 23 December, authorises a deep-water harbour.
1900Work begins on the breakwaters, using stone from local quarries.
1908The Electrolytic Refining and Smelting Company builds its works; its first copper is produced in February 1909.
1928The first iron ore from Whyalla arrives for Australian Iron & Steel’s new blast furnace.
WHAT IT DOES NOW
A working suburb of Wollongong beside the BlueScope steelworks and a port that exports coal and handles grain and containers. The copper smelter’s 198-metre stack was demolished in 2014.