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Coalcliff is a town on the coast of New South Wales, Australia, between Sydney and Wollongong. Together with Stanwell Park it belongs to the ''Little Bulli'' indentation of the northern Illawarra coast strip. == History == In 1796 William Clark and others trekking north to Port Jackson from the wrecked ship ''Sydney Cove'' noticed coal exposed at the cliffs there and made a fire from it, attracting rescuers, giving the area its name. George Bass was despatched to report on it and traced the deposit along the shore and inland.〔Miriam Estensen, ''The Life of George Bass'', Allen and Unwin, 2005, ISBN 1-74114-130-3, page 72〕 There was nowhere for ships to safely land though, so it was not until 1850 that it began to be excavated. Land grants〔http://www.wollongong.nsw.gov.au/library/onlineresources/suburbprofiles/pages/coalcliff.aspx〕 In 1824 Matthew John Gibbons received a promised grant of one thousand acres from Governor Macquarie. The grant was known as 'Little Bullie' and later Stanwell Park. Gibbons was actually allocated one thousand and twenty acres from the top of Bald Hill to Judge's or Stony Creek in Coalcliff. Although the grant included Coalcliff Gibbons was unable to use it because of its inaccessibility. The land was promised to him in 1824 but it was not finally granted to him until 1833. Early residents〔 ''Matthew John Gibbons'' Matthew John Gibbons arrived in Australia in 1790 as a convict on the Second Fleet. He received a pardon and joined the NSW Regiment as a steward to Major Francis Grose, a member of the NSW (or "Rum") Corps. He married a free settler, Margaret Gordon. They had two children, Matthew and Elizabeth. The Gibbons family went back to England for a time but they returned in 1821. Gibbons worked in the civil service as a storekeeper to the Civil Engineer until 1832. Matthew John Gibbons was a prominent citizen of the early colony, and died a respected member of the community. ''Sir Thomas Livingstone Mitchell'' Mr Mitchell was a well known explorer and Surveyor General of New South Wales. He first acquired property in northern Illawarra in the 1830s. Mitchell purchased property in anticipation of the highway to Illawarra passing through the land. The highway was surveyed but not used to any extent. Mitchell lacked the means to develop the properties in the Illawarra and they passed to his son Campbell Mitchell with little having been done. Early transport〔 ''Railways''〔http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/heritageapp/ViewHeritageItemDetails.aspx?ID=4800215〕 Construction of a rail link between Sydney and Wollongong was approved in 1881. It was done in three sections, the first from Sydney to George's River, the second from George's River to Clifton/Coalcliff, and the third from Clifton to Albion Park. The contract for the third stage of the Illawarra Railway was signed in 1883. The Coalcliff Railway Tunnel No. 8 (also known as the Clifton Tunnel) is owned by the State Railway and was the first tunnel built on the Illawarra Line. It allowed the southern isolated section of the line between Scarborough and Bombo to be extended northwards to Coalcliff. This section was opened on 25 July 1888 extending the then isolated line so that passengers could transfer by coach at Coalcliff to the operating line between Waterfall and Sydney. The tunnel is a brick oviform railway tunnel featuring buttressed brick portals with pilasters and brick balustrade above. It is the second longest tunnel on the Illawarra line. Work commenced on the Coalcliff Tunnel in 1883. The unofficial opening of the Clifton to Coalcliff line was on 23 July 1888, and the first through train ran from Sydney to Wollongong on 7 September 1888. It is a single lane tunnel, 1,003 m long. A brick works was established at Otford in 1885 to provide bricks for the Coalcliff Tunnel. It took 3 million bricks to line the tunnel.〔 The Coalcliff Tunnel No. 8 is listed under the Local Heritage Act.〔 ''Roads'' In 1868 a road was constructed from the foot of Bulli Pass to Coalcliff in response to the small but growing population in the Northern Illawarra. Coalcliff General Store In 1888 the Coalcliff General Store opened at 19 Paterson Road (once referred to as the 'main street') by Mr John Earle Gibbons and his wife, son and daughter-in-law of Matthew John Gibbons. Architecturally the store was of plain colonial style, constructed of local wood with a sandstone foundation. It sold, amongst other household items, milk, bread, butter, drinks, meat, stationery goods, cigarettes and other tobacco paraphernalia, jams, preserves, poultry and bakery products. The shop was the major life force behind the township until its closure in 1907. The same year the shop was burned to the ground via unknown causes and remained a vacant lot until 1910 when another store was erected and opened by a Mr. L. Jameson. The building still stands today at the corner on Paterson Road, which has been a private residential property since 1961. The Jameson Store was the last running commercial outlet in Coalcliff, which ceased operation in May 1960 due to an overexpense of running costs and a severe lack of customers, with many of the towns-people opting to shop at nearby Stanwell Park, Helensburgh or south to Bulli and Wollongong. At the height of its popularity it served as a milkbar, fish & chip shop, general store, tobacconist and even a small bottle shop within its small boundaries. Its unsurpassable views meant it was a popular place for holidayers passing by. The only evidence of this once thriving store are the fading advertisements painted to its side and roof. Leeder Park〔N. Leeder, personal communication, 20 February 2014〕 Leeder Park, situated on Paterson Road, is a rest park and children's payground which provides access to Coalcliff's tidal rock pool. It was a five-year community project which started in 1959. Noel Leeder (then Manager at Coalcliff Colliery and President of the Coalcliff Progress Association) used his earlier background as a practising geologist to put together a proposal to Wollongong City Council, the Joint Coal Board, and the local member of the State Government (Rex Jackson) for the Council to acquire two blocks of land in Paterson Road which were slumping into the ocean and taking part of the road with it. Noel Leeder identified the cause of the slumping which was the pudgy band of Scarborough Greywacke, stratigraphically lying near the base of the water-laden Hawkesbury Sandstones and just above the coal measures, which was regularly pinching out during rain and allowing the strata above to collapse and fall onto the rock platform and into the sea. Mechanical equipment and other resources of the Illawarra Coke Company (owner of Coalcliff Colliery) were used to support the Paterson Road land stabilisation project in which the two blocks of land were drained and filled with 3,500 tons of hard rock and soil. Noel Leeder also successfully lobbied the Joint Coal Board to provide substantial funding to dig deeply below part of Paterson Road and the newly acquired blocks of land to precisely identify the location of the buried Scarborough Greywacke (then confirmed as the main water source causing the land to slump) and to buy the large diameter rust-free piping needed to pipe the water from below Paterson Road to the rock platform and the sea. Once completed, the Joint Coal Board provided the funds to buy most of the furniture, swings, etc. for the park. A community meeting of Coalcliff residents requested the park be named after Noel Leeder who not only initiated the project but guided it through to completion. This was supported by Wollongong City Council. Noel Leeder acknowledges the much needed support he received for the project from the then Wollongong Mayor Albert Squires, who officially opened the park on 22 February 1964. A video of the official opening of the park can be viewed (here ). Coalcliff Community Hall〔 When the Sydney Water Board began to plan the first complete water reticulation and sewerage system to link Stanwell Park and Coalcliff with the Sydney and Wollongong systems, Noel Leeder, then Manager of the Coalcliff Colliery, persuaded the Colliery to donate land for a proposed new community hall and give the Water Board freedom of access through the cokeworks' extensive land holdings on the scarp and the plain above (including use of the private dam then providing all the water to Coalcliff, the mine and the cokeworks), and some vital logistics support in doing the work. The pay off was an undertaking from Wollongong City Council to finance, build and maintain the new Community Hall (with substantial input from the Colliery in the design). However, ownership of the land and hall had to be vested in the Wollongong City Council as was required by State legislation. At the time, Wollongong City Council pledged to always look after the very best interests of the community (see ''Save Coalcliff Campaign'' below). The Community Hall was opened on 16 November 1957.〔 Save Coalcliff campaign In August 2013 Wollongong City Council launched "Securing our Future", a review to address their asset renewal funding gap. This could have seen, among other things, local rock pools run to fail, the cutting of permanent life guard hours, and Coalcliff's Community Hall demolished.〔http://www.illawarramercury.com.au/story/1919366/coalcliff-unites-in-fighting-proposed-council-cuts/〕 This sparked protests in Coalcliff which was reported in both the local〔〔http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVNxGl4_sWA〕 and state media.〔http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-11-20/ocean-pools-threat/5105500〕 Historical videos Noal Leeder has uploaded several historical videos about, or featuring, Coalcliff onto his (YouTube site ). "Coalcliff - Paradise Found" includes an interview Nick Rheinberger conducted in April 2014 with Noel Leeder about his work at the Coalcliff Cokeworks and the events leading to the creation of Leeder Park. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Coalcliff, New South Wales」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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