Wallabies, lizards, snakes and many forms of bird and insects live in the area. In 2006 binocular telescopes were fitted, and after several tests, vandalism and malfunctioning being a problem, they are currently in use for gold coin donation to the rotary club. The walk can be commenced from a number of locations, including Mount Keira summit, Byarong Park, the Scout Camp and Queen Elizabeth Drive.
[20], Suburb of Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia, Overlooking Wollongong Harbour and North Wollongong to Mount Keira, Significant places and items of interest in the, The Story of Mount Keira and the Five Islands, Indigenous perspectives on future development. After this the track goes along gradually climbing a ridge until it reaches the Northern Illawarra Lookout, which gives views to the north and has a plaque telling of the shipwreck at Towradgi Point. [18], In 1848 James Shoobert, a retired sea captain, drove a tunnel into what is now known as the No. The track climbs the middle slopes of Mount Keira via dense rainforest. 2 (Balgownie or 4-ft) seam, in which the coal was of better quality, and drove tunnels into it in 1849 and 1850. [20] Longwall mining was introduced in the 1960s. Mount Keira has been recognised as one of the most significant educational resources and teaching sites to the Dharawal people of the Illawarra region. From Mount Pleasant good views of the northern cliff face can be seen. The summit lookout and Queen Elizabeth Drive was officially opened in 1959, but attempts to secure land from the Australian Iron and Steel company began in 1954. On 16 April 1857 the first 3.5 tons of coal from the new mine was delivered to the wharf at Wollongong’s Belmore Basin by bullock team for trial in the S.S. Illawarra. It was hike time! The current representative is Hannah Yeoh of the Democratic Action Party. In 1878 the tramroad was widened to standard gauge and horse teams used for hauling the coal were replaced by steam locomotives. Mt Kembla is the Dharawal men's mountain, a place of good hunting and initiation. From here the track goes for a short distance before reaching the Mount Pleasant Management Trail, and then to the northeastern entrance to the Ring Track, at Geordies Flat on Mount Keira Road. In 1848 James Shoobert, a retired sea captain, drove a tunnel into what is now known as the No. The northern slopes are drained by Cabbage Tree Creek. The left branch gently climbs the southern flank of Mount Keira, following Mitchells Road to a saddle located at the junction of Mount Keira Road and Queen Elizabeth Drive. [16] On a good day it is easy to see the northern escarpment and, from the Victoria Rock Lookout, reached by a short trail or cliff track, one can see Knights Hill, Mount Kembla and Saddleback Mountain clearly.
In May 1861 a narrow gauge tramway was constructed from the incline to Belmore Basin (Wollongong Harbour) after the Mount Keira Tramways Act was passed by parliament. Geographical Names Board of New South Wales, Illawarra Aboriginals: An Introductory History, "Mountain bike riding not welcome at Mount Keira: Aboriginal Land Council", "Proposal to take Mount Keira Summit Park off Wollongong council", "Illawarra Escarpment State Conservation Area – Culture & history", Illawarra Rhododendron Gardens, Illawarra – Check-in.com.au Australia, The Eureka Council (Inc) – History of Wollongong, Illawarra Escarpment State Conservation Area – Walking Tracks, NPWS Illawarra Escarpment State Conservation Area – Mount Keira Walking Tracks – Draft Master Plan, Illawarra Health & Medical Research Institute, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mount_Keira&oldid=979856841, Geographic Names Register of NSW same as Wikidata, Australian Statistical Geography Standard 2016 ID same as Wikidata, Geographic Names Register of NSW different from Wikidata, Articles with dead external links from April 2020, Articles with permanently dead external links, Use Australian English from September 2017, All Wikipedia articles written in Australian English, Short description is different from Wikidata, Pages using infobox Australian place with an explicitly-suppressed location map, Commons category link is defined as the pagename, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 23 September 2020, at 05:23. The Ring Track can also be joined from the Mount Pleasant Track, which starts from Parrish Avenue. The Mount Pleasant Track is 750 metres (2,460 ft) long.
[17] Remnant bushland on the west and north slopes and a few trees defying extensive logging still exist, but much of the east slopes are replaced bushland grown after clearing since the 1930s. 3 (Wongawilli) seam. Rain forests have a mostly open understorey, consisting of ferns and low shrubs. 2 were the first locomotives to work on this coal route but steam locomotives were earlier used at Bulli Colliery from 1867 – even though the first Bulli locomotive purchased proved too heavy for the track which had previously been designed for an ingenious gravitational coal-skip incline to the jetty over four cuttings and four bridges. [8], According to the Alcheringa, the dreaming of the local Aboriginal peoples, Mount Keira is Geera, the daughter of Oola-boola-woo, the West Wind. Walkers can climb from the Ring Track's southern branch to Mount Keira summit via the Dave Walsh Track, which joins the Ring Track opposite the Scout Camp Road, or from the northern branch via a branch track that emerges about halfway along Queen Elizabeth Drive. Mount Keira /ˈkɪərə/ is a suburb[1] and mountain[4] in the Illawarra region of New South Wales, Australia. It contains thousands of azaleas and hundreds of rhododendrons as well as camellias. On a modern street map the route of the tramway followed Gooyong Street, Rose Street, Throsby Drive (Tramway Bridge) and then between Campbell Street and Smith Street (including the Illawarra Master Builders Club carpark) to Osborne Park and Belmore Basin. There was a campaign to paint it green so it would blend with the summit plateau canopy but this failed and it remains grey.
Coal was recorded at Mount Keira in 1839 by the Rev W. B. Clarke, a qualified geologist. [21] In 1982 a downturn in the steel industry resulted in 189 employees (60% of the workforce) being retrenched, resulting in a 16-day "sit-in" protest by 30, and mining finally ceased on 27 September 1991. At the Mount Keira summit, it can also be reached via a maintenance trail that leads from the carpark in Summit Park. In 2005, the Summit Park refurbishment provided an opening up of magnificent vistas of the coastal plain from Kiama to Sydney, and is managed as an annexe of the Wollongong Botanic Garden. In 1982 a downturn in the steel industry resulted in 189 employees (60% of the workforce) being retrenched, resulting in a 16 day “sit-in” protest by 30, and mining finally ceased on 27 September 1991. An early man to climb the mountain of note was botanist Allan Cunningham. There is also a population of introduced Rusa deer residing on and around the mountain, which are often seen by local residents at dusk or dawn. Alternately, RapidKL bus route T818 connects Desa Sri Hartamas (across the Sprint Expressway from Mont Kiara proper) to the SBK13 Pusat Bandar Damansara MRT station. The DUKE expressway connects Mont' Kiara to either Ampang, Ulu Klang or Gombak, which interchanges with the Kuala Lumpur Middle Ring Road 2 28 and East Coast Expressway E8. The Mount Pleasant Management Trail is a trail used for walking and mountain bike riding, bicycles being permitted only on management trails and not on walking tracks in the Illawarra Escarpment State Conservation Area.