Sandon Point Bulli – Connections of a Spirit of Place and Its People
Through the Millennia, Sandon Point Bulli has been a gathering place. Aboriginal Peoples came together here – from the north, south and west; then Europeans came. Our exhibition will feature images, stories and memorabilia of past decades – capturing Sandon Point – the Place and Its People
In the early 19th Century, Aboriginal Peoples guided early Europeans down the Dreaming Track, now Bulli Pass, to the Coast at Sandon Point. For years it was the land gateway towards the Wollongong settlement. Farming & a whaling works, followed. With coalmining established in the mid-19th Century years, coal was sent offshore from the old jetty at Sandon Point, and the Point became a place to wander and for sport, fishing, boating, as well as political meetings and protest. In 1998, after the traumatic citywide floods, people gathered there together for reflection and healing.
There are ghosts here at Sandon Point, the tragedies of sailors lost in shipwrecks, surfers drowned, even a murder.
Forty years ago, 600 people came to oppose 40 metre high coal bins proposed for the north side of the Point. NIRAG, Northern Illawarra Residents Action Group, was formed in opposition. Artists and photographers have captured the Point, writers have shared its stories in the Footprints books.