Bulli, New South Wales
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Bulli is a town in New South Wales, Australia, on the South Illawarra coast north of Wollongong and near Thirroul. Bulli is derived from an Aboriginal word signifying "double or two mountains".
Originally inhabited by Wodi Wodi Aborigines, European wood cutters worked in the area from about 1815. The first permanent European settler was Cornelius O'Brien, who established a farm in 1823.
The Bulli Coal Company opened a mine in 1862 on the escarpment and built cottages to house miners and their families. Coal was transported by rail from the mine to a jetty at Sandon Point where it was loaded onto ships. The miners were paid in accordance with production, they were not paid a set wage. The first trade union in the Illawarra region was formed by miners at Bulli in 1879. Management retaliated by firing and evicting union miners and hiring non-union labour.
On March 23 1887 a gas explosion in the mine killed 81 men and boys, leaving 50 women widows and 150 children without fathers. There was 1 survivor, a 17 year old boy who became known as "Boy Cope". The mine reopened later in the year. The Bulli Mine Disaster was one of the worst in the region's history.
A historical feature today is the railway station, situated between the escarpment and the surf beaches. It contains a museum. Another is the Bulli Family Hotel, which was opened in 1889.