NSWFarming
Unanderra
Charcoal Creek’s dairy village became a railway junction.
1840sStores open at Charcoal Creek
WHAT STARTED IT
The settlement grew at Charcoal Creek, near where cattle came down from the mountain onto the coastal plain, on the edge of the Jenkins family’s Berkeley estate. Stores and an inn served the farms around it, which were noted for dairying.
WHAT SUSTAINED IT
The post office at Charcoal Creek was renamed Unanderra in 1881, and a butter factory, tannery and coke works followed. In 1932 it became the junction for the railway over the escarpment to Moss Vale.
TURNING POINTS
1817Robert Jenkins receives the 1,000-acre Berkeley grant near Lake Illawarra.
1840sGeorge Lindsay and Edward Hargraves open stores at Charcoal Creek.
1881The post office at Charcoal Creek takes the name Unanderra from 7 April.
1887The Unanderra butter factory opens, followed by coke works in 1888.
1932The Premier opens the Moss Vale–Port Kembla railway at Unanderra on 20 August.
WHAT IT DOES NOW
A Wollongong suburb of about 5,500 people, with homes to the west of the Princes Highway and industry to the east. It is still the junction for the line to Moss Vale.