The two communities most closely associated with the mountain that remain today are: Mount Kembla "down bottom" and Kembla Heights "up top". Historically rivalry existed between the two communities with the bottom settled early by mainly English agriculturalists and the Kembla Heights company owned village with mainly new immigrant miners to work at the coal mine. Over the years the communities have suffered and laughed together, intermarried, moved out and others have moved in. The demographics have drastically changed from a mainly working class community struggling through depression and strikes, to a middle class community with the majority now employed in professional occupations. ​Today that rivalry has all but disappeared, however, a marked difference between the two communities and their inhabitants can still be felt. Mount Kembla has been subdivided with just about every available block now built on. This once backwater place has grown and reinvented itself into a sought after Wollongong suburb. The old cottages are replaced for bigger houses, neat pathways dotted with art replace the old bush tracks. Spectacular views are enjoyed by walkers, cyclists and joggers. Here and there glimpses of the past remain, retained in the much loved and heritage listed Mt Kembla Hotel, Mt Kembla Public School, Mount Kembla Soldiers and Miners Memorial church, the former St Clement's Catholic church, the former Post Office store, and a few scattered cottages. 

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At the foothills of Mt Kembla the suburbs of Figtree, Unanderra, Cordeaux Heights and Farmborough Heights have been transformed into Wollongong's sprawling suburbia with very little to remind of the once deep forests that once stood before the arrival of Europeans, or the idyllic rolling hills and homesteads of the agricultural settlers. Very few original buildings remain, though a few have been heritage listed such as: Green Hill  manor estate in Figtree; Farmborough Farm, and the Edna Walling/PK2 mine site and cottages in Farmborough Heights; “Nudjia” house; the Station Master's residence; and Charcoal Public School building in Unanderra. The old Berkley Pioneers cemetery that once enjoyed a scenic position on top of the hill now looks out of place surrounded by industrial buildings in Unanderra's Industrial Park. 

 

Kembla Heights is the only village in the entire area that has retained its authentic historic charm as it remains to this day a company owned village, providing humble mostly two bedroom weatherboard cottages to rent. The village was historically more heavily populated than Mt Kembla but shrunk drastically with the practice of knocking down the miners cottages when residents vacated during the 1950s-70s. The lack of private home ownership though has thankfully spared this village from grand McMansions, street curbing and colorbond fences. Many that find Kembla Heights never leave, with some residents 5th and 6th generation. There’s comfort in the natural, historic beauty surrounding and simpler way of living. Community members are passionate about protecting the rustic, informal charm of Kembla Heights, which was declared a heritage conservation area in the 1990s. It is a place that time forgot and we hope time never finds it.