Theme Defending Illawarra The appointment of Captain Bishop of the 40th Regiment on 10 July 1826 as the commander of a small

l detachment sent to Illawarra to maintain law and order commenced the military presence in Wollongong. On 27 July 1830, a detachment of the 39th Regiment took charge of newly constructed barracks at Wollongong, soon used by the mounted police. As a significant port, Wollongong received fortifications and armament to repel any invader. In 1868, three muzzle loading 68-pounder guns were sited to defend Wollongong Harbour. In 1890, construction commenced of a 48-feet diameter gun pit to house a disappearing 6-inch breech-loading gun on Flagstaff Hill. Construction of a smaller fortification to house two 80-pounder muzzleloaders on Smith's Hill began in 1892, which was completed in 1893. By 1988, Smiths Hill fort was one of the few surviving colonial era defence works left in Australia. Like all areas of NSW, men from Wollongong enlisted to serve in the Boer War, soon overtaken by the huge enlistments for the Great War later known as the First World War. Young men from farming communities were ideal for the Light Horse whilst miners and others were suitable for infantry or engineers. Men with mining experience but not fit or young enough for active service were taken for the tunneling companies, which burrowed under enemy positions to set off mines or large explosions to demolish enemy fortifications. A total of 243 enlisted at Wollongong. Other men enlisted elsewhere though Wollongong attracted most of those joining up. There were 46 who enlisted at Bulli for example, 9 at Thirroul and 3 at Dapto. A swag of memorials was erected to those who served and died, most of them built after the war. For example, in 1924, the Woonona and Bulli memorial to the soldiers of the First World War was unveiled at the corner of the main road and Hopetoun Street. Wollongong had a much more significant role in World War Two. With one of the two major steelworks in the nation, it was a vital strategic asset and manufacturing centre producing the steel needed for machinery and equipment as well being the producer of non-ferrous metals needed for equipment, particularly electrical cable, bullets and shells and the coal needed to provide power. Coastal defences were strengthened. Surplus naval 6-inch guns were converted into coast batteries and mounted at the Breakwater and Illowra Batteries at Port Kembla. By August 1944, batteries at Port Kembla included the Breakwater Battery of 2 x 6 Mk XI, the Illowra Battery of 2 x 6 Mk XI, the Drummond Battery of 2 x 9.2 Mk XV plus the AntiMotor Torpedo Boat Battery of 2 x 155 mm guns. Observation posts were set up at Port Kembla. Two brick and concrete posts were on each breakwater, along with another three posts along the water front including one at the end of jetty No 4 facing the harbour entrance. One special post completed the complement making a total of nine posts. The Tom Thumb battery of 3.7-inch anti-aircraft guns and searchlights was sited near the beach on Wollongong golf course, just north of the sewerage treatment works. Army camps and works included a camp at Kembla Grange racecourse and Dapto showground, a gun emplacement on the horse loading ramp at Kembla Grange station, trenches and Jervis, Illawarra, p 133 Jervis, Illawarra, p 135 Rogers, Thematic History, p 40 M Hutton, Conservation Study, p 31 http://mappingouranzacs.naa.gov.au, accessed 19 April 2010 Bayley, Bulli, p 74 R K Fullford, We Stood and Waited: Sydneys anti-ship defences 1939-1945, Royal Australian Artillery History Soc, Manly, 1994, p 102 D Horner, The Gunners: A history of Australian artillery, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 1995, p 390 http://www.wollongong.nsw.gov.au/services/artculture/Documents/Final%20Thematic%20History% 20of%20the%20City%20of%20Wollongong.pdf

tunnels on railway land between Mullet Creek and West Dapto Road. Searchlight headquarters was at the showground, whilst searchlights were located at Mount Brown. A major tank trap bisected the area from Lake Illawarra to the escarpment. It ran from Mullet Creek to Kembla Grange and included a double row of timber poles in the shallows of the Lake coupled with concrete tetrahedrons used to construct the breakwater at Berkeley after the war. Another tank trap crossed the peninsula at Kemblawarra between the sea and Lake Illawarra. Significant numbers also enlisted from the area. A total of 1,728 servicemen and women who gave their address as Wollongong served in World War Two in all services of which 61 joined the RAAF. From Bulli, there were 255 who enlisted and 55 of them joined the RAAF. A total of 83 who lived at Port Kembla joined the services. The former Court House on the corner of Harbour Street and Cliff Road served as the centre for military training in the Illawarra from 1904 to 1973. In 1938, the 34th Batallion Headquarters was relocated from Hurstville to that building. 1 Jervis, Illawarra, p 133

Jervis, Illawarra, p 133 Jervis, Illawarra, p 135 Rogers, Thematic History, p 40 M Hutton, Conservation Study, p 31 http://mappingouranzacs.naa.gov.au, accessed 19 April 2010 Bayley, Bulli, p 74 R K Fullford, We Stood and Waited: Sydneys anti-ship defences 1939-1945, Royal Australian Artillery History Soc, Manly, 1994, p 102 D Horner, The Gunners: A history of Australian artillery, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 1995, p 390 http://www.wollongong.nsw.gov.au/services/artculture/Documents/Final%20Thematic%20History% 20of%20the%20City%20of%20Wollongong.pdf