William and Elizabeth STAFFORD arrived in NSW from India on the 15.5.1852 with six children, soon after they were in Mt Kembla purchasing various large lots. 

Lot 128, 21 acres purchased 9-9-1952 from William JAMES, known as William James' farm. (Mt Kembla Hotel and Wilson's Cottage are on this lot).

Lot 129,  30 acres , purchased 1852 (Mt Kembla Public School, former Post Office and Church are on this lot).

Lot 74, 100 acres  purchased 15-11-1852 from the Crown

Lot 153, 55 acres purchased 15-11-1852 from the Crown

Lot 135, 31 acres purchased 15-11-1852 from the Crown

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"Later William Stafford purchased lot 134 (approx. 16 acres) from John Buckland ..." (John Stafford on Kembla Jottings Facebook).

The Staffords became a prominent and important local family contributing to the development of Mt Kembla and Cordeaux River communities. On the 23.3.1857 William and Elizabeth Stafford  transferred part of their 30 acres (lot 129) to Joseph Wood Wilshire, Henry John Rixon and The Reverend Matthew Devenish Meares Clergyman of the Church of England for the purposes of a school and burial ground at American Creek, by the 26.4.1858 the American Creek Chapel/school was built. It seems there was some controversy over the use of the chapel as a church run school so another portion of this lot was sold for fifteen pounds on the 22.1.1858 to the Board of National Education for the public school, still in use to this day. Stafford Road & Stafford Lane in Mt Kembla are named after this pioneering family and their descendants can be found in the area to this day.

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Cordeaux Road was only built circa 1856 as described by The Empire (Sydney) 25th June 1856

NEW LINE ROAD - There is now exhibited... a new line of road, connecting the Cordeaux River with Wollongong… we will describe the line from its connection with the Wollongong and Dapto, road. Immediately after crossing the Fig Tree bridge going towards Dapto on the right hand side the road commences, going through Ryan's on to Rixon's ground, and down the side line of the avenue along the flat under Mrs. McGoory's house, until it reaches the water fall, round which it winds along the margin of the creek, which, it crosses near to the hut where W. Gregory now lives, and along the flat until it reaches Mr. Gordon's ground; just after entering which it crosses the creek three times-then rises over a jutting point, and ascends the higher ground belonging to Mr. Gordon, bending towards the mountain-through Lehany's and James' (now Stafford) down to the bridge over the blind creek at Stafford's 30 acres ; after passing through this ground it enters the uncultivated forest ground, running in the direction of the American Creek, some rods from its margin until it crosses it at a considerable elevation about the flats, winding around the ranges unit it reaches the Cordeaux. This road was first surveyed by Mr. Shone some five years ago... "

Image: 1854 map from the NSW State Records office

The American Creek Chapel was opened on the 26th of April 1858. It was built by Benjamin Rixon on approximately half and acre (2,025 square metres) of William and Elizabeth Stafford original thirty-acre lot 129 in the heart of Mt Kembla. The Staffords sold the land to Joseph Wood Wilshire, Henry John Rixon and The Reverend Matthew Devenish Meares Clergyman of the Church of England on the 23rd March 1857 for 10 shillings. The chapel doubled as a school until the Board of National Education school opened in 1859. The building was licensed as a house of worship on the 28.9.1860 though it was never consecrated.  Alfred Wilson of the Cordeaux River donated the church bible. The Anglican church was rebuilt and renamed the Mount Kembla Soldiers' & Miners' Memorial Church in 1932.

The American Creek burial ground surrounding the church was intended as a general cemetery, it was consecrated by the Church of England Lord Bishop of Sydney on the 4.2.1861.  The oldest burial seems to be James Gillespie who died 20th December 1859 aged 56 years. 

Information from: Woolcott& Kirkwood 2007 'The Soldiers' & Miners' Memorial Church Mount Kembla N.S.W. A Short History 1857-2007, Stafford Family Album and Church Album on Kembla Jottings Facebook page, Australian Cemeteries Index, genealogist Hellie Upton and TROVE newspapers.

Henry Gordon, John Buckland and William Stafford formed a committee to address the need of a school for the children of American Creek. William and Elizabeth Stafford sold another portion of their 30 acre Lot 129 to The Board of National Education on the 22.1.1858 for 15 pounds. The school was opened on the 11th of February 1859. It was named Violet Hill School at the request of Henry Gordon JP, instead of American Creek School, after the hill on which it was built where native violets grew. Both the original single room school room and teachers cottage appear to have been of weatherboard, slab and shingle construction erected by Robert Longmore for 375 pounds. Mr John McCredie was the first school teacher instructing 33 pupils on average with 48 enrolled in the first year. With the advent of shale and coal mining in Mt Kembla the school population grew to well over 100 students. The name of the school was changed to Mt Kembla Public School in 1884 after the opening of the Mt Kembla coal mine. 

Image circa 1890 detail from Kerry and Co Mt Kembla Saddle from the collections of the PowerHouse Museum.

Information from: Mount Kembla School album on Kembla Jottings Facebook page; School History compiled by the Department of Education 1959; and Mt Kembla Public School 1859-2009 Celebrating 150 years.

In 1859 artist Eugene Von Guerard visits the Illawarra and makes many sketches of Mt Kembla and the surrounding areas. This drawing with Mt Kembla in the background depicts in the foreground the forty acre property named Spring Creek belonging to the famous tracker and notable Illawarra citizen, Benjamin Rixon. Rixon was granted the property in 1839, his brother occupied the property for a few years before Benjamin moved his family there in 1847 (Walsh 1998). The Property today would be bounded by present day Amaroo Avenue on the east and Cordeaux Road on the south heading north west from there. Previously the area was known as Central Kembla, today it is in the suburb of Figtree, NSW. 

Image from the collection of the State Library of NSW.

Helena Scott (1832-1910) an artist and naturalists, daughter of entomologist and entrepreneur Alexander Walker Scott (1800-1883) grew up with her sister in the Hunter region. Helena must have visited the Illawarra where she drew this depiction of Mount Kembla and inscribed it "Ben Rixon's" Farm, Dapto Road, Illawarra August 1863 - Helena Scott". This drawing is in the collection of the State Library of NSW.  Helena lmarried Edward Forde a year later in 1864. 

Benjamin Rixon's farm was sold to Mr Deighton Taylor and his wife Rachel (nee Henning) and renamed Springfield Farm, they lived there until 1896. Rachel Biddulph Henning (1826-1914) was the famous letter writer published in The Letters of Rachel Henning edited by David Adams. She writes 'We have, I think, at last found an abode that will suit us... Mr Taylor and I made an excursion to Wollongong to look at some farms that we had heard of there...one on what they call American Creek we were delighted with... The land is very good. There is a tolerable house which we can inhabit while we build another, a creek (as they call a brook here) running right through the farm, and a site for a new house where there is a most lovely view of the whole Bulli Range...you can hardly imagine anything more beautiful than the scenery. Sometimes at a turn of the road you look down upon green depths of tropical vegetation, cabbage palms and tree-ferns and magnificent trees, etc., all bound together by festoons of flowering creepers. The whole valley of Illawarra lying below, and the sea and the "Five Islands" beyond all...Having once seen the Illawarra district quite spoils you for any other part of Australia."

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After oil bearing shale was discovered on the property of John Graham (1829-1915), lots 4 and 160, in Mt Kembla, and specimens tested for their yield and quality, operations began in July 1865. The Pioneer American Creek Kerosene works were Australia's first Kerosene works.  Edward Graham was the manager of the works and Thomas Gilroy Dobinson the undermanager. The Kerosene works continued until competition from cheap American imports made the enterprise no longer profitable. The works closed in 1878. A new company registered in England, the Mt Kembla  Coal and Oil Co. (Ltd) purchased the plant. More information can be found in the booklet The Pioneer Kerosene Works at American Creek (Mt. Kembla, N.S.W.) by A. P. Fleming 1967

Image from Michael Organ's Chronology - click on image for a direct link.

More information at Illawarra Heritage Trail 

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"Opening of the Mount Kembla Mine" The Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser, Saturday 10th March 1883 pages 441 and 452.

John Graham (1856-1933), son of Edward Graham (manager of the Pioneer Kerosene Works) became Mt Kembla's first postmaster at Mt Kembla operating from 1883 to 1886 (Stone 2002:44). He also advertised that his MT KEMBLA STORES "carries on a GENERAL STORE and BUTCHERING ESTABLISHMENT, near the Coal Company's works, and is prepared to supply goods of every kind of as good qualities and for as reasonable prices as they can be procured in any part of the country..." (Illawarra Mercury 1883, 21st of September). John married Elizabeth Martha Thompson and they had their first three children in Mt Kembla between 1883 and 1888 after which they left the area. 

Image of an 1886 3d Green NSW Australia Stamp selling on E-bay!

The Primitive Methodist Church began as a mission in Kembla Heights holding services in a tent from 1884. With a piece of land leased from Mt Kembla Coal Company they built their new church in 1885.  "The exterior is built solely of corrugated iron, lined inside with ½- inch pine. Its dimensions are 35ft in length, by 24ft in breadth, with a height of about 13ft in the clear. It is calculated to seat comfortably about 120 persons." (Illawarra Mercury 14.5.1885). The church has long since disappeared but Church Lane in Kembla heights was named after the church, the site now a car park for the Kembla Heights Bowling and Recreation Club. 

Thomas Gilroy Dobinson a manger of the Kerosene works in the 1870s, established a general store, bakehouse and buttery on his two and a half acres between the school and the chapel in Mt Kembla. Robert Wilson built him the store circa 1885. The store was managed by a relative, Joseph Dobinson to 1888 when Joseph and his wife separated. The store then appears to have been managed by Neil Beigley who ended up purchasing T G Dobinson's entire 2 &1/2 acre property in 1890. Joseph Dobinson moved to Figtree where he ran a general store. Neil Beigley later sold the store and four cottages he appears to have built to Alek/Alick James in 1913. The store building and one of the cottages remain standing to this day and are heritage listed residences. T G Dobinson's butchers shop it is said was adjacent to the church on the Western side, later converted to a cottage.

Image circa 1890, cropped from a Kerry and Co image of "Kembla Saddle, Illawarra" from the collections of the PowerHouse Museum. 

The Presbyterian Church was built on a piece of Mt Kembla Coal company land on View Street in Kembla Heights circa 1888. Throughout July 1888, newspaper notices seek "Tenders are invited for the erection of a Galvanized Iron Church at Mount Kembla... Geo McPhail" (Illawarra Mercury 7.7.1888). Followed by "Tenders for Carting Material from Wollongong to Mount Kembla, for Presbyterian Chuch ... W Hutson" (Illawarra Mercury 14.8.1888). The manager's wife Mrs Ronaldson and mine deputy William McMurray worked tirelessly for the Presbyterian church community in Kembla Heights and were responsible for the interdenominational end of year Sunday School picnics that were the highlight of the Kembla Heights social calendar. Sadly the church burned to the ground at 2 am on an April morning in 1914. The church continued holding services in the Kembla Heights reading rooms until money was raised to replace it with this new Fibro-cement building in 1915. The foundations were laid by George Nelson and Andrew Clelland. The new church was opened on the 19th of December 1915 (Illawarra Mercury 24.12.1915). This building was demolished in 1975. 

Image from Noel Murray shared on Kembla Jottings Facebook page.

Mount Kembla Coal company built a hall in Kembla Heights to be used as a reading room and library as well as a place of amusement for its employees and their families (Illawarra Mercury 28.11.1895). Many social's, church fundraisers, dances, political meetings, elections, parent and citizen meetings and celebrations were held in this corrugated iron building. In April 1890 Mr J. H. Ronaldson (manager of the colliery) asked  for and received permission "to be allowed to use the old school desks and forms, which were about to be replaced by new furniture, for use in the new reading room which had just been built in the village" (Mt Kembla Public School History 1959). Dr Robertson managing director of the Mount Kembla Coal Company donated a piano to the reading room which his wife and Mrs Ronaldson played and accompanied performers at socials (Illawarra Mercury 14.4.1891).  In 1893 the reading rooms had 50 members (Illawarra Mercury 19.8.1893). An Ante-room was added to the hall around 1898. The hall was sometimes referred to as the "School of Arts" (Illawarra Mercury 23.4.1920). It continued in use until the new brick hall was built, however, residents tell that the socials and dances were never quite the same as they were in the old tin hall (large building on left of image).

Thomas J Moran built a hall on his father's property in Kembla Heights that is first mentioned in 1893 as Moran's Hall a place of dancing (Illawarra Mercury 1.6.1893). It is thought that the central wooden building between the two brick buildings of the later Workingman's club was this hall. The Kembla Heights Workingman's Club Rooms also established and owned by T. J. Moran in 1896. Moran's Hall was a large weatherboard building that seems have been used extensively as a dance hall, for socials and fundraisers for St Clement's Catholic church, Mt Kembla Cricket Club, Mt Kembla Rugby Football club as well as a community meeting place. The hall was decorated with evergreens, flags and Chinese lanterns on special occasions. It seems it was also sometimes in competition to the Reading Rooms at Kembla Heights that were company owned. When the Workingman's Club Rooms closed in 1906, the hall and adjoining brick buildings were converted to residences. By the 1980s the buildings had fallen into disrepair and were set alight in 2001. All that remained of the wooden Moran's Hall was and empty space between the two brick 1896 additions and blackened and twisted pressed metal lining that disappeared in the aftermath.

Image circa 1980s courtesy of Mt Kembla Heritage Centre

St Clements Roman Catholic Church on Cordeaux Road was very diplomatically built in 1893 halfway between the villages of Mt Kembla and Kembla Heights at a place known as The Willows. A census had found that there were 200 Catholics living in the vicinity that would otherwise travel on foot or horse to Wollongong's St Francis Xavier. Dr. Higgins, Auxiliary Bishop of Sydney, consecrated the church in 1894 to St Clement, a pope and patron saint of miners. The almost half acre of land was donated by Mrs Beatson of Wollongong. The building was built in a Carpenter Gothic-style timber church in Illawarra. It was described as "...45 feet long by 20 foot wide. The walls are 11 feet high, with a ceiling raised 3 feet higher, the roof being a dome one. The sacristy is 9ft by 10ft. The ceiling is painted in pale blue and the walls a French grey. The seats and kneelers are of kauri pine, varnished. In the main window of the church is cathedral glass, the class in the porch windows at the opposite end of the building being stained. Speaking of the church as a whole, it is a very pleasing, comfortable, and satisfactory structure. The contractors were Messrs. Moran and Pleus, the amount of their contract being £139. The general committee were Messrs. L. Carr, W. Morris, N. Beigley, F. Andrews, and J. Murphy. Messrs. L. Carr and F. Andrews were the works or supervision committee, and Mr. J. D. Mackie was the clerk of works for Father Byrne. The ground has been substantially fenced in by Mr. P. M'Namara, and a large gate for the entrance to the ground is being made gratis by Mr. L. Carr... The church will comfortably seat about 120 persons." (Illawarra Mercury 9.1.1894).

The last service was held in March 1981. This building is heritage listed. 

Image from Wollongong City Council's Illawarra Images collection.

Scottish born future NSW premier (1894 to 1899) and fourth Australian Prime Minister (1904 to 1905) George Houston Reid (1845-1918) visited the tiny coal mining village of Kembla Heights in 1893. Mr Reid addressed a full house at Mt Kembla Coal company's Reading Room. A gifted public speaker he used humor and wit as is evident in description of the meeting in the Illawarra Mercury 30.12.1893.

Image from the Library of Congress accessed from the Museum of Australian Democracy. 

Thomas John Moran built the Kembla Heights Workmen's Club Rooms on a portion of the 105 acres his father Thomas Moran Snr purchased on the 28.1.1856, Lot 5 on old Parish of Kembla maps (1961 Map). The club originally consisted of three adjoining buildings; it is thought that Thomas added the brick buildings circa 1895 to the north and south of his previously built Moran's Hall with doorways connecting all three. The bricks were made from local clay taken from the banks of American Creek across the road (where the dam was built in 1908). The club obtained its licence in 1896 and was only the second licensed liquor and gaming club outside of Sydney. It boasted a bar, dance floor, card games, roulette table and billiard table. The northernmost brick building was the cool storage area originally and later the games and recreation room where card games and a roulette wheel were used. The central weatherboard building and largest room was called the Refreshment and Smoking room, it contained the bar, tables and chairs with pressed tin walls and ceiling, a dance floor and cool room. A door from the bar led into a storeroom in the private residence of T J Moran. A detached weatherboard billiard's saloon was added to the south of these three buildings and managed by Matthew Egan. Though short lived, the Windy Gully Workmen's Club Rooms as they are sometimes referred to were a hub of social activity for hardworking miners, farmers and timber getters alike as it was centrally located between the communities of Mt Kembla, Cordeaux River Valley and Kembla Heights.

The mine managers detested the club doing all they could to shut it down. In 1902, on what had been the club's local cricket pitch right next door, the managers chose this company owned land as an instant cemetery for the victims of the disaster. With the combined effects of their workmates buried next door to the cub coupled with the temperance movement in full swing at the time and supported by the company who opposed the licensing of the club, along with competition from Mt Kembla Hotel built in 1898 the club came to an end in July 1906 (South Coast Times 28.7.1906). The club rooms were later converted to residences and rented, Thomas Moran sold the property to Harry Graham who continued to rent out the residences. The northern brick building was known as "the honeymooners cottage" as newly weds often started out their married life renting this small residence. Thomas Gerald McNamara lived with his family and ran a confectionery shop from the southern brick building.

The Workmen's Club Rooms complex was heritage listed in the 1990s, they are little more than ruins today due to an arson attack in 2001 followed by neglect and disinterest. Information from Clare Curtis 2008 and Phil Hartley.

Image from the collections of Mt Kembla Heritage Centre.

The new Mt Kembla Public School stone and brick double story school building and headmasters residence were completed April 1896 by A. D. Scouller at a cost of 1,499.00 pounds to meet the demand of the growing population of miners families. The materials for the new buildings were carted up by Robert James, an ex pupil of the school. The school had changed its name from Violet Hill School to Mt Kembla Public school in 1884 with the opening of the new Mt Kembla mine. Mr Alexander Hamilton was the first headmaster to live in the new headmaster's residence and teach in the new school buidling.  The ground floor of the building was used originally used as a weather shed.  A boys weather-shed was built in 1911 and in 1916 the ground floor was enclosed to make use of the rooms as additional class rooms with a weather-shed was built for the girls outside. Water was also laid on to the school at this time from Cordeaux Dam. Electric lights were installed in 1936. Both the school and headmaster residence were heritage listed in the 1990s. 

1913 image from the collections of the NSW Department of Education and Training

Information from: Mount Kembla School album on Kembla Jottings Facebook page and TROVE; School History compiled by the Department of Education 1959; and Mt Kembla Public School 1859-2009 Celebrating 150 years.

Mt Kembla Hotel was designed by surveyor and civil engineer Carl Weber and built in 1897 on Robert Wilson's land. John O'Halloran became the first publican in 1898 leasing the premises from Robert Wilson. Mr O'Halloran lived at the Hotel with his large family.  After the death of Robert Wilson's wife Lydia, Robert sold the hotel to Tooths Co in August 1911. John O'Halloran continued as licencee until his death at his residence in the Hotel on the 16th of August 1917. The Licence appears to have remained in his name until it passed onto his wife on the 27th of March 1919 and remained so until her death on the 2.11.1928 aged 76 years. On the 11th of March 1929 the licence was transferred to Victor Henry Wilson, son of Robert Wilson and husband to "Gussie" Cecilia Augustine O'Halloran. On the 7th of December 1933 Gussie Wilson took over the licence after her husbands early death.

John William Bill was licencee from the 12th of October 1939 for two years. He was John O'Halloran's grandson, the 30 year old son of Sarah Elizabeth O'Halloran and William Montague Bill.  Their daughter Ellen Josephine Bill, married William Reginald Waugh who was the next publican of Mt Kembla Hotel. Reginald Waugh held the licence for 5 years from the 1st of December 1941 to 1946 and so ended the O'Halloran family connection to the Mt Kembla Hotel that spanned almost half a century. 

George Edward Boscley took on the licence from the 14th of March 1946 for only a year.

John William Dorhay followed from the 29th of May 1947 for two years.

Basil Martin Ettingshausen became the publican from the 9th of May 1949 for three years.

In all this time the exterior of pub changed little.

The 12th of May 1952 marks the beginning of a new era with the Kennedy brothers Leslie Charles Kennedy and SP Kennedy holding onto the Hotel for over a decade. In this time the pub undergoes some unsympathetic remodeling with the classic wrap around verandah partially removed and closed in. 

William Michael Murphy in partnership with his wife Colleen Patricia Murphy follows the Kennedy brothers from 19th of June 1967 for six years.

Charles William Laison became licensee from the 8th of January 1973, but didn't hold onto it for very long. 

Thomas John Weatherall in partnership with his wife Sharon Toni Weatherall take over the license on the 2nd of June 1975, they later purchased the freehold property from Tooth and Co on the 24th of November 1982 forming the company TJ and ST Weatherall Pty Limited. Information above obtained from Noel Buttlin Archives ANU

Some time later the 1980s the pub was sold to Western Suburbs Leagues Club for $368,000. (Heritage Listing Record NSW Department of Environment and Heritage)

In 1995 pub was up for sale for $850,000.

Paul Mack was the publican circa 1990s early 2000s (more info needed)

Nick Whitlam (the son of former prime minister Gough Whitlam) purchased the pub and took over the licence from the 10th of March 2004 (Sydney Morning Herald 10.4.2004) only holding onto it for three years. The Whitlam's sold the pub to the Blackburn family in October 2007. The pub was put up for sale again in 2012, but it did not sell and was retained by the Blackburns who have now had it for over a decade. 

The Mt Kembla Hotel is still standing to this day and looking great at 274 Cordeaux Road, Mount Kembla, NSW 2526. In 2017 the pub was freshly painted and a new corrugated iron roof installed.

Image of Mt Kembla Hotel from the collections of Wollongong City Council Illawarra Images.