This is a wonderful "then and now" tool to help you compare the local landscape through aerial photographs taken in 1948 and 1951 with 2014 satellite images.

There are over 500 images related to Mount Kembla on Wollongong City Council Library's Illawarra Images site. Choose search words such as Mount Kembla, Mt Kembla, Kembla Heights, Cordeaux River to see a wonderful collection of historical images related to our local history. 

Trove is an awesome initiative of the National Library of Australia. It helps you find and use resources relating to Australia. It brings together content from libraries, museums, archives and other research organisations and gives you tools to explore. Trove is a set of services, an aggregation of metadata, and a growing repository of fulltext digital resources. 

Simply enter search words like Mt Kembla, Kembla Heights and Cordeaux River for thousands of articles about local history. Please correct the auto text if you have time to make future searches easier.

Stuart Piggin : Faith of Steel and Mount Kembla Mine Disaster research materials

'Dr Stuart Piggin lectured in the Department of History at the University of Wollongong from 1974 until the late 1980s. The collection comprises research files, interviews and photographs compiled by Dr Piggin in association with his writing of the books Faith of Steel (1984) - a history of churches of various denominations within the Illawarra - and The Mount Kembla Disaster (1992), co-written with Dr Henry Lee.' A go to site for anyone interested in Mt Kembla History.

At 2 pm on July 31, 1902, Mt. Kembla colliery exploded, killing 96 men and boys. A Royal Commission was held into the disaster and confirmed that gas and coal-dust were responsible for the explosion. Read the report, the eye witness statements and the response of the Mt Kembla Colliery, desperate to ensure it wouldn't have to pay out any compensation claims.

UOW Library archives are a fantastic resource and well worth exploring.

Illawarra Local Aboriginal Land Council

The Illawarra Local Aboriginal Land Council aims to improve, protect and foster the best interests of all Aboriginal persons within the Council area.

Call (02) 4226 3338

3 Ellen Street, Wollongong, New South Wales

NSW Births Deaths and Marriages website is a great resource for anyone interested in genealogy. They have records of births, deaths and marriages in NSW dating from 1856 and early church records from 1788 to 1855. Their search engine allows unrestricted searching for:

• Births over 100 years ago

• Deaths over 30 years ago

• Marriages over 50 years ago

• Mount Kembla and Cordeaux River births, deaths and marriages are recorded as in the district of Wollongong.

Kembla Heights/Windy Gully Heritage Conservation Area

The whole of the Kembla Heights area, including the southern Windy Gully area, has been declared a state recognised Heritage Conservation Area. It is "a rare and intact example of an early mining village in the Illawarra region. Buildings are excellent examples of vernacular architecture from the late Victorian/Federation period. Dispersed pattern of dwellings with generous unfenced yards is a significant feature of the relationship to the landscape."

Development Controls for Kembla Heights Heritage Conservation Area - Wollongong City Council

Kembla Heights and Windy Gully are so unique and special to the Illawarra that there are strict development controls in place to preserve the casual, rural and historic views, buildings and existing street furniture. Visiting Kembla Heights is like taking a step back in time. The local community has always cherished this unique character with a long history of activism to protect the cottages and prevent inappropriate developments. In the 1970s local mines went on strike for two weeks to prevent the company from knocking down the quaint cottages. 

Click on the button below for Wollongong City Council's Development Control Plan Chapter E11 Heritage Conservation. Scroll to page 21 for a full description of the Development Controls applicable to Kembla Heights Heritage Conservation Area.