A Mount Kembla landowner is hoping to tap into the suburb’s spooky side, requesting Wollongong City Council’s permission to run ghost tours and construct a museum
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The owner of 135 Cordeaux Road has lodged a development application to use a heritage-listed residence on the large property as a local history museum.
According to the plans, the miners’ cottage – a modest four-room structure – would be used as a museum, which would take bookings for ghost tours.
The cottage floor plan would remain unchanged, and would accommodate a kitchen/tea room, officer, museum and bathroom facilities.
It would be operated by the Mount Kembla Historical Society and include displays and a safe place for historical records, the plans say.
Ghost tours would be conducted for groups of six to eight people one night a month, to allow visitors to view the “various structures, outbuildings and cottages” on the property.
The owners are also seeking to formalise their retention of large sandstone walls and gates on the property.
Mount Kembla has long been known for its eerie history and has been included on a number of past city ghost tours due to the 1902 mine disaster which killed nearly 100 men and boys.
The Windy Gully cemetery, established for the victims of the mine disaster and rich in heritage, attracts those intrigued by the supernatural.
In the past, some Mount Kembla Hotel publicans reportedly thought the pub was haunted by the ghost of Mickey Brennan, whose body was never recovered from the disaster.
The museum plans are on exhibition through the council’s website until September 28.