Austinmer () is a northern village of

Wollongong Wollongong ( ; Dharawal: ''Woolyungah'') is a city located in the Illawarra region of New South Wales, Australia. The name is believed to originate from the Dharawal language, meaning either 'five islands/clouds', 'ground near water' or 'sound ...

on the south coast of

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

, Australia. It sits in the northern

Illawarra The Illawarra is a coastal Regions of New South Wales, region in the southeast of the Australian state of New South Wales. It is situated immediately south of Sydney and north of the South Coast, New South Wales, South Coast region. It encompas ...

region, south of Stanwell Park and immediately north of

Thirroul Thirroul () is a northern seaside suburb of the city of Wollongong, New South Wales, Wollongong, Australia. Situated between Austinmer, New South Wales, Austinmer and Bulli, New South Wales, Bulli, it is approximately 13 kilometres north of Wo ...

. The town's main beach is Austinmer Beach, a patrolled surf beach and a popular tourist beach. A second smaller and unpatrolled beach lies directly to the north of Austinmer beach. It is called Little Austinmer Beach, known locally as 'dog beach', as it is a popular off-leash zone for dog walking. The main road through the town is

Lawrence Hargrave Drive Lawrence Hargrave Drive, part of the Grand Pacific Drive, is a scenic coastal road and popular tourist drive connecting the northernmost suburbs of Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia, to Wollongong, in the south, and Sydney, in the nort ...

, which connects with the

Princes Highway Princes Highway is a major road in Australia, extending from Sydney via Melbourne to Adelaide through the states of New South Wales, Victoria (Australia), Victoria and South Australia. It has a length of (along Highway 1) or via the former ...

Bulli Pass Bulli Pass is a mountain pass with an elevation of located northwest of , New South Wales, Australia. It is situated on the Illawarra escarpment west of the Illawarra coastal plain. It was built during the 19th century for use by loggers and lo ...

. Moore Street connects Austinmer railway station to Lawrence Hargrave Drive, and, along with a short stretch along Lawrence Hargrave Drive, constitutes Austinmer's commercial presence, as well as a police station, school, churches, and veterinary clinic. The Headland Hotel to the north of Austinmer Beach was featured in the 2005 to 2006 television series ''

headLand A headland, also known as a head, is a coastal landform, a point of land usually high and often with a sheer drop, that extends into a body of water. It is a type of promontory. A headland of considerable size often is called a cape.Whittow, Jo ...

''. It is served by Austinmer railway station on the South Coast railway line which runs electric double deck train services to Sydney and Wollongong.

History

By the 1860s, the area was simply called "North Bulli". The name was later changed to Austinmere (later dropping the final "e" and pronounced "mer", the French word for "sea"; Austin (the original mine owner/manager) by the sea) with the opening of the North Illawarra Coal Company's mine around 1887. Some have suggested that the area was originally called Sidmouth, named after the

Devon Devon ( ; historically also known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel to the north, Somerset and Dorset to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Cornwall to the west ...

shire birthplace of Robert Marsh Westmacott who owned land that now includes Austinmer. It turns out that a future owner, one Biddulph Henning, named it ''Sidmouth'' after where he had been staying in 1891 just prior to his return to Australia and subsequent purchasing of the land in Austinmer. As the historian Joseph Davis explained, the name "Sidmouth" is unrecorded prior to Henning's purchase of the property. Austinmer was the site of the Hicks Point coal jetty from 1886 to 1915, when it was destroyed by fire. Iron dowel pins that secured the timber uprights of the wharf to the bedrock and an iron mooring ring set into in the rock are all that remain of it today.

Demographics

In the 2021 Census, there were 2,725 people in Austinmer, 81.2% of whom were born in Australia. The next most common country of birth was England at 5.8%. 93.7% of people only spoke English at home. The most common responses for religion were No Religion 53.2%, Catholic 18.6% and Anglican 13.2%.

Glastonbury Gardens

Established in 1965, the park is a historical part of Austinmer as it was the site for colliery dam. Adjacent to the Lawrence Hargrave Drive, the public park consists of Sabal palms, Norfolk Island Pines (''Araucaria heterophylla'') and

Canary Island Date Palm ''Phoenix canariensis'', the Canary Island date palm, is a species of flowering plant in the palm family Arecaceae, native to the Canary Islands off the coast of Northwestern Africa. It is a relative of ''Phoenix dactylifera'', the true date palm ...

''Phoenix canariensis''. It was dedicated to Reg Glastonbury, the Wollongong City Council City Engineer from 1947 to 1962 and was named after him.

Schools

* Austinmer Public School

Churches

* All Saints Anglican Church

Notable people

Notable people from or who have lived in Austinmer include: * Sydney de Kantzow, co-founder of the

Cathay Pacific Cathay Pacific Airways Limited, or simply Cathay Pacific, is the flag carrier of Hong Kong, with its head office and main airline hub, hub located at Hong Kong International Airport. The airline's operations and its subsidiaries have schedule ...

Airline * Frenchy, comedian and YouTuber. *

Juilee Pryor Juilee Pryor is a street artist and an abstract artist from Sydney, Australia. Pryor is most well known for her large-scale mural artwork in Sydney and its inner-suburbs. She has been an active artist since 1982, her most recent work being in 2 ...

, street artist

References

{{Wollongong suburbs Suburbs of Wollongong