Dunmore is a largely rural suburb of Shellharbour City in

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

. Dunmore is bisected north to south by the South Coast railway line and 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 ...

History

Much of the present-day

City of Shellharbour The City of Shellharbour is a Local government in Australia, local government area in the Illawarra region of New South Wales, Australia. The city is located about south of Sydney and covers the southern suburbs of the Wollongong urban area cen ...

was originally part of the 13,000-acre Peterborough Estate, granted to discharged convict and colonial politician

D'Arcy Wentworth D'Arcy Wentworth (14 February 1762 – 7 July 1827) was an Irish-Australian surgeon and the first paying passenger to arrive in the new colony of New South Wales. He served under the first seven governors of the Colony, and from 1810 to 1821 ...

in 1821. In 1865, a 2,560-acre portion of the estate was advertised for sale. The land stretched along the Minnamurra River in the south of the estate, towards Jamberoo. Local shopkeeper George Lawrence Fuller bought the property and named it Dunmore after his birthplace in County Galway, Ireland. ( Fuller's son George was to become

Premier of New South Wales The premier of New South Wales is the head of government in the state of New South Wales, Australia. The Government of New South Wales follows the Westminster system, Westminster Parliamentary System, with a Parliament of New South Wales actin ...

in 1921.) Fuller ''père'' was instrumental in the development of

basalt Basalt (; ) is an aphanite, aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the planetary surface, surface of a terrestrial ...

quarrying in the district. Dunmore came to prominence in 1887 as the location of the

railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

serving the seaside village of

Shellharbour Shellharbour (also known as Shellharbour Village) is a suburb located in the Illawarra region of New South Wales, Australia. It also gives its name to the local government area, City of Shellharbour, and its central business district, Shellha ...

, five kilometres to the north-east. Indeed, at various times, the station was known as "Shellharbour". The station moved from its original location at Dunmore Road, in the suburb's south, to be closer to the centre of Shellharbour, in 2014. The new station is known as Shellharbour Junction. Dunmore is also home to a

Boral Boral Limited is an Australian building and construction materials company. It is owned by Seven Group Holdings. History Boral was founded by David Craig on 4 March 1946 as Bitumen and Oil Refineries (Australia) Limited with Ampol, Caltex havi ...

basalt quarry, opened c. 1900, and Shellharbour Anglican College, which opened in 2004.

Heritage listings

Dunmore has a number of heritage-listed sites, including: * Illawarra railway: Dunmore railway station

References

{{Wollongong suburbs Suburbs of Wollongong City of Shellharbour