Thirroul () is a northern seaside suburb of the city of Wollongong, Australia. Situated between Austinmer and Bulli, it is approximately 13 kilometres north of Wollongong, and 73 km south of Sydney. It lies between the Pacific Ocean and a section of the Illawarra escarpment known as Lady Fuller Park, adjacent to Bulli Pass Scenic Reserve.
Name After European settlement had grown in the 1860s, the town was first called North Bulli, until it was renamed Robbinsville in 1880 after a local landowner, Frederick Robbins.
In 1887 the Railways Department opened a railway station in the town, and in 1892 officially adopted the name Thirroul. The source for this suggestion was probably Archibald Campbell, then owner and editor of the Illawarra Mercury, who was interested in Indigenous languages. His original manuscript transcription of the Aboriginal word for the cabbage tree palm which flourished in the area was Dthirrawell. In 1892, Port Kembla Aboriginal elder William Sadler said that the word Thirroul was meaningless. The proper term must be, he claimed, throon, referring to the bush leeches collected near the town. A local historian, Joseph Davis, cleared up the confusion in 1994, revealing that Campbell's original manuscript transliteration of the term, Dthirrawell was almost illegible, and a clerk had misread and mistranscribed it as Thirroul.
History
Before European settlement, the land on which Thirroul is located had been occupied for at least 20,000 years by a subgroup of the Dharawal (or Tharawal) people. The Wodiwodi people spoke a dialect of Tharawal.Rivers and Resilience: Aboriginal People on Sydney's Georges River , UNSW Press, 2009 p. 290 n.1
Cabbage-tree palms were once plentiful in the area and early white settlers harvested them to make strong fence posts. Stands of these trees are still visible on either side of Bulli Pass.
The first Europeans to settle in the area were loggers, who from around 1812 cut down some of many of the cedars in the area and shipped them to Sydney. People started to settle there in the 1860s, mostly on the hilly area as the coast was flood-prone.
Occupations consisted of farming, cedar logging, whaling and fruit growing and eventually mining when the Bulli Mine was opened in 1859 and the Bulli Jetty which shipped the coal from the mine opened in 1863. The township was known as North Bulli until February 1880 when the name of Robbinsville was chosen. The new name was decided upon at a meeting of ten men (including Frederick Robbins) in George's Whitford's "big new House" (located on the site of today's Ryans Hotel) in 1880. One suggestion for a name for the place was "Mudmire" but somehow Robbins convinced the others to call the town after himself. It only had a total population of 490 in 1891.
In 1888 the rail link with Sydney was finished. Early construction workers on the railway caused a population increase, and the eastern side of the town progressed rapidly. The Thirroul Locomotive Depot opened in 1917. It closed in 1965 and only the barracks for the accommodation of the railway crews remain. The Railway Institute Hall (opened in 1920) where workers once studied has been classified as a heritage building. The construction of the rail link also created an increase in tourism for Thirroul. It became a popular family seaside holiday destination with boarding houses and holiday cottages in demand.
Two known early residents include Samuel McCauley and Frederick Robbins. McCauley was one of the oldest residents of the Illawarra district when he died in June 1899 in Thirroul. A street in Thirroul has been named McCauley street. Robbins was a prominent resident who gave his name to the township of North Bulli as it was then called. He was made the first postmaster of Robbinsville in 1888 after, along with other residents, lobbying the government to supply a post office and railway platform.
In 1898 the Amy was shipwrecked on the rocks at the southern end of Thirroul beach. All of its crew died. A memorial to the Amy and her crew is located in the Thirroul Beach Park.
Coal mining operations began at the start of the 20th century and miners needed residences, though logging had been occurring before for some time.
The world-famous English author, D. H. Lawrence visited Thirroul in 1922 and wrote the novel Kangaroo about Australian fringe politics after the First World War whilst there. Overlooking the Pacific Ocean, his house Wyewurk is the earliest Australian bungalow to show the influence of the Californian Bungalow style of architecture. He gave this description of the town: "... The town trailed down from the foot of the mountain towards the railway, a huddle of grey and red painted iron roofs. Then over the rail line towards the sea, it began again in a spasmodic fashion ... There were wide unmade roads running straight as to go nowhere, with little bungalow homes ... Then quite near the inland, rose a great black wall of mountain or cliff ...".
A park and a monument (dedicated 21 November 1998) commemorate D H Lawrence's time at Thirroul, located on the same street as the house he stayed in.
The book D.H. Lawrence at Thirroul (1989), by Thirroul resident Joseph Davis, questioned many of the assumptions made by Robert Darroch in his 1981 work entitled D.H. Lawrence in Australia. The Cambridge edition of D.H. Lawrence's novel Kangaroo tended to accept the views of Davis rather than those of Darroch.
Michael Bialoguski, later to become a prominent player in the Petrov Affair (1954) and later still an orchestral conductor in the UK and Europe, had a medical practice in Thirroul in the late 1940s. The artist Brett Whiteley died from a heroin overdose in the Beachside Motel in Thirroul on 15 June 1992, aged 53.
The Thirroul Village Committee (TVC) was formed in 1983 because, in the words of Don Gray, "the town was looking rather tatty" and something needed to be done. Don was the founding chairperson and Lynne Jones, the founding Secretary. In 1983 the population of less than 5,000 qualified Thirroul as a village. In 1993 the TVC won the Basil Ryan gold award at the Rise & Shine Awards presentation for improved streetscapes. The Thirroul Seaside and Arts Festival, which is a successful community event, was the idea of Don Gray. The first festival was run in 1993. Lynne Jones organised the Festival for many years, building to the point where it was handed over to the Lions Club.
Another community event was "the Growing Green Kids Festival" – a not-for-profit event which was the brain-child of resident Cate Wilson (1948–2012). Cate was also President of the Thirroul Action Group (TAG) - an environmental group which has functioned for around 30 years. Residents concerned about health risks picketed against the Telstra phone tower in 1997. Storms and floods severely affected the Thirroul area in August 1998.
In August 2007, Thirroul's CBD and beach was declared an alcohol-free zone as a council initiative to prevent public drinking on streets and footpaths within the designated area.
In 2011 Thirroul resident Don Gray released a self-published book of his memories called My Thirroul illustrated by local artist, Christine Hill. A children's playground was opened by Wollongong Council with a plaque carrying their names on 4 July 2012. Some of the artwork evokes Gray's memories of an elephant stuck in the former Thirroul Beach lagoon on the current site of the playground – a story he recalled (and which Christine Hill illustrated) in his book. Gray died on 28 April 2013, aged 93 (Illawarra Mercury, 30 April 2013).
Anita's Theatre
King's Theatre, located at 264-270 Lawrence Hargrave Drive, was designed by renowned theatre architects Kaberry and Chard, and built for Wollongong Theatres in 1925. Officially opened on 22 October 1925, it accommodated an audience of 1,560, with 1,202 stalls seats, 248 circle seats, and four boxes along the side walls. The theatre was in continuous operation as a cinema until 1965 or 1966.
In April 1968, after all seating had been removed and a flat concrete floor laid, the building was converted into a roller-skating rink and opened as Skateland. It remained open as such until the mid-1990s.
In 2003, businessman John Comelli purchased the derelict building, and undertook extensive refurbishment to convert it back into a theatre. In 2007 it reopened as Anita's Theatre, to commemorate Comelli's deceased wife. Since then it has operated as a live performance venue, hosting concerts and live music.
In June 2011 the theatre was purchased for million by a consortium headed by Rennie Cristini. In 2013, the property sold for million.(Illawarra Mercury, 15 November 2013).
In 2019, Midnight Oil launched their "The Final Tour" at Anita's Theatre.
In July 2022, Live Nation Australia Venues Pty Ltd acquired the operations of Anita's Theatre, with a view to providing a good regional live music venue for Australian artists.
Heritage listings Thirroul has a number of heritage-listed sites, including: Illawarra railway: Thirroul railway station
Commerce & services The town's major commercial area lies between an area just north of Bulli Pass, where the Princes Highway splits to form the Lawrence Hargrave Drive, to Thirroul Station, over the bridge and past the main centre and the Anita's Theatre building. Supermarkets include a Coles and IGA. Thirroul is steadily growing in population, and many new shops are added regularly. Many cafes now exist in Thirroul's main commercial area, adding to its popularity as a seaside holiday town. Thirroul has many fashion, gift and lifestyle shops along the main streets.
The boutique clothing and jewellery shops, florists, supermarkets, news agencies and other shopping essentials make it the main shopping area for the northern suburbs of Wollongong. Desiderate Jewellery, an online jewellery business specialising in sterling silver and gemstone jewellery, is based in Thirroul. Thirroul also has a sub-branch of the Returned and Services League of Australia (RSL).
Thirroul is also home to King's Theatre (1913), which underwent large-scale renovations in 2006/2007 and was renamed to Anita's Theatre by the developer John Comelli, in honour of his late wife. Anita's Theatre was for sale as of May 2010 but was purchased for 1.05 million dollars in 2011 by a Balgownie business man. The boutique clothing and jewellery shops, florists, supermarkets, news agencies and other shopping essentials make it the main shopping area for the northern suburbs of Wollongong. Thirroul also has a sub-branch of the Returned and Services League of Australia (RSL).
Thirroul is part of the Northern Illawarra Chamber of Commerce, which was established in 1996 and is recognised as an official body by the Wollongong City Council. Its aim is to promote the identity of the Northern Illawarra in co-operation with local business owners, the residents community, and government and tourism bodies to generate local business growth for the region.
There are two primary schools, St. Michael's and Thirroul Public School. St. Michael's is a Catholic school that was established by the Sisters of St. Joseph in 1940 and is located in Station Street. Thirroul Public school was established in 1889 after Frederick Robbins sold one acre of his land, "well situated and elevated, being the centre of population", to the Department of Education for the purpose of building a school and teacher's residence. The school subsequently opened in 1889 with 154 children on the roll. Thirroul Public School is located in Roxburgh Avenue. Thirroul also has a Thirroul Scout Group as part of the Scout Association of Australia, NSW Branch.
In June 2009, the new Thirroul District Library and Community centre was opened. This library offers email and word processing, inter-library loans, photocopying and printing, free Internet access and children's programs.