In the second part of our series looking back at the Illawarra Mercury’s 160-year coverage of the region, LOUISE TURK revisits the first half of the 1900s.
The turn of the century was heralded in the Illawarra with the start of construction on a bridge over Tom Thumb Lagoon, which would provide a new and faster link between Port Kembla and Wollongong.
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According to Mercury records, a contractor’s daughter drove the first pile for the bridge on July 30, 1900.
The bridge was needed to cut travel time between the two communities and improve commercial life.
Within six months, the bridge was open to traffic.
Another major construction project began in 1901 when blue-black granite was quarried to build the eastern breakwater at Port Kembla. The first stones were tipped into the water on August 2, 1901.
Almost a year later, the Mercury reported 95,000 tons of stone had been quarried and used in the project. A year after that, the tonnage was 192,000 tons.
Work on the northern breakwater began in 1908.
The early years of coal industry prosperity were marred by a devastating colliery explosion that would become Australia’s worst mining accident.
At 2pm on July 31, 1902, a deafening explosion ripped through tranquil Mt Kembla village.
The blast, at the Mt Kembla Colliery, killed 96 men and boys, shattering the lives of dozens of families in the tight-knit village community.
Hundreds of rescuers, headed by former Keira Mine manager Major Henry MacCabe, rushed to Mt Kembla where they were confronted by a scene of total devastation.
MacCabe and a group of rescuers entered the mine but when they neared the section where the miners were working he quickly warned the rescuers to turn back.
William McMurray stayed with MacCabe and after the two had been forced back 90 metres by the overpowering fumes they collapsed and died.
By the time the rescue effort was completed, many others were severely injured or affected by carbon monoxide.
The region’s growing population, and high-risk nature of working in the coal industry, meant health services needed an urgent upgrade.
Wollongong’s first hospital was known as the Albert Memorial Hospital. Its Flinders Street foundation stone was laid in 1863.
In 1907, a new hospital was opened on Garden Hill, ushering in an era of development on a site now known as Hospital Hill. The new hospital had a male ward with 12 beds, a female ward with six beds, a separation ward, nurses’ duty room, bathroom and sanitary conveniences.
The early part of the 20th century also saw the region’s sporting facilities start to take shape.
The first race meeting at Kembla Grange was held on May 30, 1912. The Mercury noted one feature of the opening race meeting was ‘‘the number of residents of the surrounding districts present”.
In 1914, Australia went to war, at a time when loyalty to the monarch and British Empire was at its height.
In the Illawarra, volunteers readily stepped forward to be part of an expeditionary force.
By 1915 the region had began to face the realities of war after Australian troops landed at Gallipoli on April 25, now celebrated as Anzac Day. Rolls of honour carrying the names of the dead and wounded, as well as personal letters from the frontline, were appearing in regional newspapers.
War continued to shape Illawarra life in 1917, the year of the first Anzac Day march in Wollongong and a second referendum on conscription.
On November 11, 1918, the war ended and very soon afterwards, when the news arrived, Wollongong was full of joy and celebrations were in full swing. The Mercury’s one word headline in the November 15 edition said it all: “Peace”.
In 1921, a new era of industrial development was ushered in when Charles Hoskins announced plans to relocate his iron and steel operations from Lithgow to Port Kembla.
It would be seven years before his plans came to fruition, with Port Kembla becoming a steel town on August 29, 1928, when the first blast furnace was built.
The 48m high furnace, in the heart of dairying country, surrounded by rolling hills and scattered bush, became the first operating unit of a relocated steelworks. The company had acquired 64 hectares of land for the site. As a result of the development, Aboriginal people living in the Hill 60 area had to move south to Coomaditchie.
A new company was formed - Australian Iron and Steel Ltd, acquiring Hoskins’ Iron and Steel Co Ltd and two other companies.
Its capital in 1928 was five million pounds and AI&S expected to employ 2000 men.
By 1930, the Great Depression was being felt in the Illawarra, with acute unemployment and industrial confrontation, desperate living conditions and even death from starvation.
In addition, the gradual downturn experienced by the coal industry had a great impact on the local economy. In July 1930, five collieries began to retrench workers and by the end of the month 1300 miners - or one in three - was without work.
Wollongong attracted the eyes of the nation when on November 16, 1938, a meeting of more than 100 wharfies reaffirmed their refusal to load pig iron bound for Japan. At the time Japan was at war with China and the wharfies believed the iron would be turned into guns and bombs.
The boycott continued for almost three months.
On January 11, at the height of the dispute, federal Attorney-General Robert Menzies (later prime minister) came to Wollongong to meet union leaders.
More than 1000 placard-wielding demonstrators awaited him, and gave Menzies the nick-name ‘’Pig Iron Bob’’.
In September 1939 Australia was at war again, joining Great Britain in the struggle against Germany and its ally Italy in Europe and North Africa. Once again Wollongong district men signed up for an expeditionary force, new honour rolls were printed, and patriotic funds were set up to support soldiers.
In December 1941, the war came closer to home when Japan invaded British Malaya and bombed the US naval base at Pearl Harbour, Hawaii.
In Kiama, the government requisitioned blue metal steamers for naval wartime use. Early in 1942, two 23cm guns were installed at Fort Drummond, in what is now Television Avenue Coniston, and were protected by massive reinforced concrete casemates.
It was an integral part of the network of coastal batteries constructed to protect NSW’s two major industrial areas, Port Kembla and Newcastle.
In 1945, the Illawarra and the nation celebrated the end of the war in Europe in May, and the end of the war in the Pacific in August.
Services of thanksgiving were held throughout the district in May, with more than 5000 people attending a service at Wollongong Showground. A street procession with several bands preceded this service, along with returned servicemen, scouts and guides, unionists and industrialists.
At VP Day in August, there was even more enthusiasm for peace celebrations in the Illawarra.
On August 24, the Mercury detailed the part the Illawarra had played during six years of war: ‘‘Its rate of enlistment has been high and unfortunately so too has been its casualty list.’’
The paper also referred to the civilian population’s ‘‘ready and active response’’ to the Australian Comfort Fund appeals, as well as the work of those in the National Emergency Services, and the huge industrial undertaking which focused for a long time exclusively on the production of arms and munitions.
Twelve lives were lost when the Bombo sunk in a terrible maritime accident in 1949.
On February 22, the intrastate steamer Bombo, carrying blue metal screenings from Kiama to Sydney, developed a bad tilt while off Stanwell Park.
The ship turned around to make for Port Kembla and was not far away when the crew took to lifebuoys. Minutes later, it turned over on the port side and sunk.
Two survivors, firemen Michael Fitzsimmons, 48, and Thorvald Thomson, 47, came ashore at Bulli after being in the water for 10 hours.
Fitzsimmons told the Mercury: ‘‘When we went overboard, I grabbed a lifebelt and with seven others I floated all night on two big pieces of timber trying to make the beach ...
‘‘It took me two hours to swim a quarter of a mile to the shore. The tide kept taking me back but two big dumpers took me onto the shore.’’
Pioneer aviator Sir Charles Kingsford Smith touched down on Seven Mile Beach, Gerroa, amid much excitement on January 10, 1933.
His three-engine Southern Cross, en route from Sydney, landed for an overnight stopover before a pre-dawn takeoff - and a flight record attempt.
By the early hours of the next day, more than 1000 people had gathered on the beach in great expectation.
Smithy, fast becoming a household word around the country, was set to break the standing time of 13 hours for an Australia-New Zealand flight.
He managed 14 hours 10 minutes (a wind factor worked against him) but broke his own previous record of 16 hours when he landed at New Plymouth (5pm Sydney time) in January 11.
A big moment in bridge-building took place at Windang on September 11, 1936, when the first pile was driven for a timber structure to span the entrance to Lake Illawarra.
The bridge (replaced in the 1970s) was to be 320 metres long and have 33 spans, with a 3.6 metre clearance above the mean high water mark.
The Mercury (September 18, 1936) said the new bridge would mean traffic could travel from Port Kembla by way of the entrance to Shellharbour township and then to Shellharbour (Dunmore) Railway Station.
Also in 1936, work was completed on a new lighthouse, erected on Flagstaff Point, Wollongong.
It was the first one to be built by the Commonwealth Government since it took control of ocean lighthouses in 1913.
The Mercury (September 11) reported: ‘‘The present lighthouse at Wollongong Harbour will still continue, being controlled by the State Government which confines its operations to the lighting of harbours and rivers.’’
On October 22, 1936, Woolworths new store opened in Wollongong on a site purchased from the Presbyterian Church on the north-west corner of Church and Crown Streets.
The new Crown Theatre in Wollongong opened with fanfare in 1920 on the site of the old Crown Theatre on the corner of Keira and Burelli Streets.
With elaborate fittings, it was the largest wooden span theatre then existing in Australia.
By all accounts, its modern-for-the-day interior design was colourful and ornate, with seating for almost 2000 patrons.
The entrance vestibule featured wooden panelling, a marble ticket office and a terrazzo marble floor, the later reflecting an early Italian cultural influence.
Access to the foyer was through swing glass doors with leadlights and panelling. The theatre was fitted out with rich carpets.
There was seating for 600 people in upholstered comfort in the dress circle, while the stalls between the dress circle and the stage could seat 1200 people. Overhead, 18 private boxes each catered for six to eight people.
Wollongong's Continental Baths were opened in 1926 with ceremony, lots of colour and a musical performance.
The Illawarra Mercury (March 13, 1926) said of the occasion: ‘‘The scene looking back from the seawall, with the bright dresses of the ladies, the strings of flags and the music of the Wollongong Town Band was a memorable one.
‘‘This goes far to prove the contention that these baths are likely to be one of Wollongong’s main assets.’’
The Mayor Alderman N M Smith said the project had cost the council two thousand pounds thus far.
When the dressing sheds were completed - they were by Christmas time - he believed the baths would be among the best in the state.
