Corrimal is a suburb north of the city of
Wollongong
Wollongong ( ; Dharawal: ''Woolyungah'') 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 water' or 'sound ...
,
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 ...
. 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 Haven from 1909 to 1967. To the west is a lawn bowls club and a wealthy foothill neighbourhood of residences bordering bushland.
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 ( ; Dharawal: ''Woolyungah'') 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 water' or 'sound ...
. 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.
History
The suburb takes its name from a point on the bordering
Illawarra escarpment
The Illawarra escarpment, or officially the Illawarra Range, is the fold-created cliffs and plateau-eroded outcrop mountain range west of the Illawarra coastal plain south of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. The range enclose ...
which was known as Mount Corrimal (named after the
Aboriginal Dreamtime warrior Kurimul) and now called
Broker's Nose.
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 skidder, skidding, on-site processing, and loading of trees or trunk (botany), logs onto logging truck, trucks[colliery
Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground or from a mine. 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 extra ...]
, also known as the Corrimal-Balgownie Colliery.
Corrimal station opened in 1887, when
bullock
Bullock may refer to:
Animals
* Bullock (in British English), a castrated male cattle, bovine animal of any age
* Bullock (in American English), a young bull (an uncastrated male bovine animal)
* Bullock (in Australia, India and New Zealand), an o ...
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.
Commercial
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 frozen dessert typically made from milk or cream that has been flavoured with a sweetener, either sugar or an alternative, and a spice, such as Chocolate, cocoa or vanilla, or with fruit, such as strawberries or peaches. Food ...
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 packaged goods company headquartered in London, England. It was founded on 2 September 1929 following the merger of Dutch margarine producer Margarine Unie with British soap maker Lever B ...
in 1960 and is still in operation.
Education
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 (now defunct),
Corrimal High School and Aspect, a school for children with autism.
Transport
Corrimal is served by
Corrimal railway station on the
Illawarra railway line
The South Coast Railway (also known as the Illawarra railway or the South Coast line) is a Commuter rail, passenger and Rail freight transport, freight railway line from Sydney to Wollongong and Bomaderry, New South Wales, Bomaderry in New So ...
, located on Railway Street which connects the station to the heart of the town.
Politics
Stephen Martin of the
Australian Labor Party
The Australian Labor Party (ALP), also known as the Labor Party or simply Labor, is the major Centre-left politics, centre-left List of political parties in Australia, political party in Australia and one of two Major party, major parties in Po ...
served as Corrimal's federal MP in the
Australian House of Representatives
The House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameralism, bicameral Parliament of Australia, the upper house being the Australian Senate, Senate. Its composition and powers are set out in Chapter I of the Constitution of Australia.
...
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
Alison Byrnes, 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.
Sport
The most popular sport in the suburb is
rugby league
Rugby league football, commonly known as rugby league in English-speaking countries and rugby 13/XIII in non-Anglophone Europe, is a contact sport, full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular Rugby league playin ...
, with the local team, the
Corrimal Cougars, representing Corrimal in the
Illawarra Rugby League
The Illawarra Rugby League is a rugby league competition in Wollongong, NSW. It is one of the oldest rugby league competitions in Australia, founded in 1911 with five clubs (Dapto, Helensburgh, Mount Keira, Unanderra and Wollongong). The area p ...
competition. Winners of First Grade titles in 1948 and 1974, the club plays its home games at Ziems Park.
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 Town Centre Plan, Wollongong City Council 2015.]
References
{{Wollongong suburbs
Suburbs of Wollongong