Looking Back Network

Looking Back Network The Page also features short history stories and images, chiefly from the Illawarra region of NSW, from my Looking Back website.

The Looking Back Network is a page featuring Australian history, with a focus on pubs, and includes links to my websites www.timegents.com and www.lookingback.org The Looking Back Network (LBN) is a page that provides links to my three websites, www.lookingback.org www.timegents.com and www.thebullitimes.com
The Page takes a look at Australian history, including my special interest, Australian pubs, through my website, Time Gents: Australian Pub Project and other links.

During the late 1970s history was made at Australian Industrial Refactories, Thirroul when women were employed for the f...
18/06/2026

During the late 1970s history was made at Australian Industrial Refactories, Thirroul when women were employed for the first time to “class bricks” and undertake other labouring work.
My mum, Rita Roberts started as a "loft boy" at ‘AIR’ or the old Newbold’s brickworks, before later becoming a ‘brick classer’.
This picture shows the women ‘classers’, employed to re-stack and sort bricks, taken in the late 1970s. Rita Roberts is pictured on the left sitting on the fork lift (black hair) with Barbara Clarke... recognise any other pioneering women in this picture?
The factory site today is a housing estate.
Picture: Mick Roberts Collection.

South Bulli Colliery's lamp room, undated.Posted by Greg Ray back in 2020.
17/06/2026

South Bulli Colliery's lamp room, undated.
Posted by Greg Ray back in 2020.

Bulli Bulletins, June, 1920.The announcement which appears in this issue that an improved motor 'bus service will be est...
17/06/2026

Bulli Bulletins, June, 1920.
The announcement which appears in this issue that an improved motor 'bus service will be established on the Austinmer - Wollongong run on and after July 1st, will be received with pleasure by persons that have to use the 'busses. Hitherto the service has been unsatisfactory, owing to the fact that no fixed timetable was in force. In future a half hour service will be maintained from 9am to 6pm.
- Illawarra Mercury Friday 25 June 1920.
Picture: Mants Austinmer to Wollongong bus at Bulli, Undated. Note the solid rubber tyres. Wollongong City LIbrary.
* Enhanced and coloured with AI technology. The original is in the comments.

Sue Edwards, who once called the Bulli Beach Kiosk home, with her best friend Bev Quinn at the C1964 Wollongong Show. Pi...
16/06/2026

Sue Edwards, who once called the Bulli Beach Kiosk home, with her best friend Bev Quinn at the C1964 Wollongong Show. Picture: Sue Edwards. More at the Looking Back website. The link is in the comments.

"Lines of coal-filled trucks at the deserted South Bulli colliery. Six weeks ago the miners walked out and already weeds...
16/06/2026

"Lines of coal-filled trucks at the deserted South Bulli colliery. Six weeks ago the miners walked out and already weeds are growing between the trucks and bushes creeping out towards the lines. Six hundred men are on strike at this colliery."
- The Sydney Sun Tuesday 23 April 1940.
Picture: Mitchell Library State Library of NSW, Courtesy ACP.
Thanks also to Heather, from "Back in time, Photos from the Illawarra" Facebook Group for discovering this beaut image.

Bulli Fire Station, Princes Highway, Bulli, 1988. Two interesting points about this photo. Firstly, the diamond painted ...
15/06/2026

Bulli Fire Station, Princes Highway, Bulli, 1988. Two interesting points about this photo. Firstly, the diamond painted on the road to indicate there was a zebra crossing ahead (remember the zebra crossing outside the Bulli Library?), and the large additions are yet to be added to the right side of the fire station building. The Bulli Fire Station was built and opened in 1924. Photo: Mick Roberts Collection.

JP Orvad Grove dedication at Slacky Flat Park, Bulli on November 27 1991, with former lord mayor of Wollongong, David Ca...
15/06/2026

JP Orvad Grove dedication at Slacky Flat Park, Bulli on November 27 1991, with former lord mayor of Wollongong, David Campbell, and comemorative figtree planting ceremony. Many descendents of the Bulli pioneer, Jens Peter Oluf Orvad, who settled in Australia from Denmark in 1862 and eventually established the Denmark Hotel at Bulli, near the park, gathered for the dedication on the 100th anniversary of his death. By the way, that fig tree - like the Orvad family around Australia - continues to thrive.

The original and the best… The Imperial Hotel, Clifton, NSW, when it traded as a pub in 1991.The pub ceased trading on N...
14/06/2026

The original and the best… The Imperial Hotel, Clifton, NSW, when it traded as a pub in 1991.
The pub ceased trading on November 23, 2003. This followed a devastating landslide on Lawrence Hargrave Drive earlier that year which cut off access and devastated the pub's passing trade.
After sitting vacant and boarded up for nearly 20 years, the heritage-listed cliff-top building underwent a multi-million dollar restoration. It was reborn and re-opened on December 1, 2021 as a contemporary venue featuring a restaurant, cafe, and events space rather than operating strictly as a traditional pub.

The Centennial Hotel, Helensburgh, NSW, 1991.This pub was established across the road in 1888, before it was rebuilt on ...
14/06/2026

The Centennial Hotel, Helensburgh, NSW, 1991.
This pub was established across the road in 1888, before it was rebuilt on its present site in 1915 by the Hanley family.

The 1989 Back to Bulli street parade passing the Bulli Family Hotel (Now known as the Heritage Hotel). The Back to Bulli...
14/06/2026

The 1989 Back to Bulli street parade passing the Bulli Family Hotel (Now known as the Heritage Hotel). The Back to Bulli celebrations were held in September 1989 to coiuncide with the Bulli pub’s centenary and featured sporting events, history exhibitions, concerts, markets and much more.

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