Corrimal is a northern suburb of the city of
Wollongong
Wollongong ( ), colloquially referred to as The Gong, is a city located in the Illawarra region of New South Wales, Australia. The name is believed to originate from the Dharawal language, meaning either 'five islands/clouds', 'ground near wate ...
,
New South Wales
)
, nickname =
, image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates:
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = Australia
, established_title = Before federation
, es ...
,
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
. Corrimal's
CBD is situated on the
Princes Highway
Princes Highway is a major road in Australia, extending from Sydney via Melbourne to Adelaide through the states of New South Wales, Victoria (Australia), Victoria and South Australia. It has a length of (along Highway 1) or via the former ...
, and several streets adjacent to it. The main shopping centres are Lederer Corrimal and Corrimal Park Mall next to the park on the main thoroughfare of Corrimal itself. Outside this centre is an old locomotive that is affectionately known as "The Green Frog". Corrimal's welcome signs feature The Green Frog, as it ran on the Bulli Colliery Line to
Bellambi
Bellambi () is a suburb of Wollongong in the Illawarra region of New South Wales, Australia. It has a railway station (opened 1889) on the NSW TrainLink South Coast Line.
Bellambi is situated directly north of Corrimal and east of Russell Vale. ...
Haven from 1909 to 1967. To the west is a lawn bowls club and a wealthy foothill neighbourhood of residences bordering bushland.
Corrimal is served by
Corrimal railway station
Corrimal railway station is located on the South Coast railway line in New South Wales, Australia. It serves the Northern Wollongong suburb of Corrimal and opened on 21 June 1887.Illawarra railway line
The South Coast Railway (also known as the Illawarra Railway) is a commuter and goods railway line from Sydney to Wollongong and Bomaderry in New South Wales, Australia. Beginning at the Illawarra Junction, the line services the Illawarra an ...
, located on Railway Street which connects the station to the heart of the town. Immediately west of Corrimal railway station is the
Corrimal Cokeworks, after 100 years of operation it closed in 2014. The towers are a prominent local sight and can be seen from
Wollongong
Wollongong ( ), colloquially referred to as The Gong, is a city located in the Illawarra region of New South Wales, Australia. The name is believed to originate from the Dharawal language, meaning either 'five islands/clouds', 'ground near wate ...
. The railway crosses the first level crossing north of Wollongong immediately north of the station. On the second Sunday in September Corrimal hosts the annual ''Spring Into Corrimal'' family festival, which includes market stalls on the closed main streets, a parade, contest and other activities. 2009 was the 30th anniversary of the parade. In the 2007 festival, the world's largest skateboard was displayed. In 2018 the attendance rate was approx. 70,000 people and cemented "Spring into Corrimal" as the largest one day free family festival in Regional NSW.
Corrimal's community is serviced by Corrimal Chamber of Commerce (CCC), a volunteer organisation that formed in 1949 who then supported the businesses houses. In 2014 the new President (Paul Boultwood) and his committee developed a community arm to also help the citizens of the area. The Corrimal Chamber of Commerce was instrumental in making Corrimal the first autism-friendly community in Australia. Since 2014 CCC has won the best Local Chamber of Commerce in the Illawarra 3 times (2014, 2018, 2019) and won the prestigious Best Local Chamber in NSW for 2018/2019. Also looking after the community is Corrimal Region Action Group (CRAG) (formally Corrimal Revitalization Action Group), a volunteer organization that is made up of community citizens and organizations for the betterment of Corrimal and surrounding suburbs. CRAG continues to work with Wollongong City Council to revitalize the township. CRAG were instrumental in developing the "Corrimal Town Centre Plan 2015-2025" along with Council. CRAG is a true volunteer organization that has no alignment to any political group and strives to work only for the citizens and area.
Corrimal is the birthplace of
ice cream
Ice cream is a sweetened frozen food typically eaten as a snack or dessert. It may be made from milk or cream and is flavoured with a sweetener, either sugar or an alternative, and a spice, such as cocoa or vanilla, or with fruit such as str ...
manufacturer
Streets
Streets is the plural of street, a type of road.
Streets or The Streets may also refer to: Music
* Streets (band), a rock band fronted by Kansas vocalist Steve Walsh
* ''Streets'' (punk album), a 1977 compilation album of various early UK punk ba ...
. Edwin (Ted) Street started making ice cream in a small churn, just after the depression, to supply his milk bar. It tasted so good that other shops wanted to buy it and before long, Mr. Street was supplying ice cream to dozens of shops in and out of the area. He built an ice works and factory near the corner of Princes Highway and Tarrawanna Road. Many locals still remember the huge neon sign, featuring a polar bear licking an ice cream outside the Corrimal Works (The first moving neon sign in Wollongong). Streets was sold to
Unilever
Unilever plc is a British multinational consumer goods company with headquarters in London, England. Unilever products include food, condiments, bottled water, baby food, soft drink, ice cream, instant coffee, cleaning agents, energy drink, t ...
in 1960 and is still in operation.
1891- Corrimal Cougars Cricket Club and Corrimal Rangers Football Club established.
1912- Corrimal Cougars Rugby League team established, in the 1930s, Arthur Ziems donates land next to his butchery for a rugby league field.
Corrimal has four primary schools and one high school. St Columbkille's is Corrimal's local Roman Catholic school. There is also Corrimal Public School, Illawarra Adventist School,
Corrimal High School
Corrimal High School is a Education in Australia#Government schools, government-funded Mixed-sex school, co-educational Comprehensive school, comprehensive secondary school, secondary day school located in East Corrimal, New South Wales, East Corr ...
and Aspect, a school for children with autism.
History
The suburb takes its name from a point on the bordering
Illawarra escarpment which was known as Mount Corrimal (named after the
Aboriginal Dreamtime
The Dreaming, also referred to as Dreamtime, is a term devised by early anthropologists to refer to a religio-cultural worldview attributed to Australian Aboriginal beliefs. It was originally used by Francis Gillen, quickly adopted by his co ...
warrior Kurimul) and now called
Broker's Nose
Brokers Point or Brokers Nose or Corrimal Peak or Brokers Peak, is a point on the Illawarra Range, in the state of New South Wales, Australia.
Location and features
With an elevation of approximately above sea level, Brokers Nose, as it is mo ...
.
It could also mean Black Mountain (corri mala) as it is a coal belt. The first industry and settlement at Corrimal was that of
logging
Logging is the process of cutting, processing, and moving trees to a location for transport. It may include skidding, on-site processing, and loading of trees or logs onto trucks or skeleton cars.
Logging is the beginning of a supply chain ...
, followed by mining operations. In 1830 the first grant of land was made, to James Martin, of . Corrimal was first recorded in 1839 when a grant was sold ''at Corrimal''. In 1834 the Bulli Parish road was made with convict labour, directed by Major Mitchell. In 1883 Thomas Bertram opened the Corrimal
colliery
Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from ...
, also known as the Corrimal-Balgownie Colliery.
[The Corrimal Colliery Railway '']Light Railways
''Light Railways'' is a magazine produced by the Light Railway Research Society of Australia (LRRSA). The subtitle is "Australia's Magazine of Industrial and Narrow Gauge Railways".
History
The LRRSA started in the 1961 to foster interest in ...
'' issue 60 April 1978 pages 5-44
Corrimal station opened in 1887, when
bullock
Bullock may refer to:
Animals
* Bullock (in British English), a castrated male bovine animal of any age
* Bullock (in North America), a young bull (an uncastrated male bovine animal)
* Bullock (in Australia, India and New Zealand), an ox, an adu ...
teams ceased transporting coal from the mine to the railway and were replaced by a private colliery mine constructed by the Southern Coal Company, which had taken over operations from Bertram. In 1889 Broker's Nose Colliery was renamed Corrimal Colliery, which closed in 1985.
Streets ice cream was founded there in the 1930s.
Politics
Stephen Martin of the
Australian Labor Party
The Australian Labor Party (ALP), also simply known as Labor, is the major centre-left political party in Australia, one of two major parties in Australian politics, along with the centre-right Liberal Party of Australia. The party forms the f ...
served as Corrimal's federal MP in the
Australian House of Representatives
The House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameral Parliament of Australia, the upper house being the Senate. Its composition and powers are established in Chapter I of the Constitution of Australia.
The term of members of the ...
for 18 years from 1984 until his resignation in 2002. Martin served as Speaker of the House under the
Keating Government from 4 May 1993 to 29 January 1996. The present Federal MP is
Sharon Bird
Sharon Leah Bird (''née'' Reed, born 15 November 1962) is a former Australian politician. Sharon Bird served as an Australian Labor Party (ALP) member of the Australian House of Representatives, representing the Division of Cunningham in New S ...
, also of Labor. In state politics Ryan Park is the member for Keira and at time of writing Ryan is the Shadow minister for Health and the Shadow Minister for the Illawarra.
Corrimal was formerly in the seat of Macarthur, until the 1993 redistribution transferred it to Cunningham.
References
{{Wollongong suburbs
Suburbs of Wollongong