Burning Palms, New South Wales

Royal National Park Coastal Cabin Communities are heritage-listed cabin communities in the Royal National Park, Lilyvale, City of Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia. They were built from 1930 to 1950 by private citizens using their own initiative, resources and labour. It refers to the specific communities of Little Garie, Era and Burning Palms, also known collectively as the Royal National Park Coastal Shack Communities. The area is owned by the Office of Environment and Heritage. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 27 April 2012.

Lilyvale is a locality in the Illawarra region at the southern of the Royal National Park, New South Wales, Australia. Lilyvale is located in the City of Wollongong local government area that is situated south of Sydney. Helensburgh railway station was within the southern populated part of the locality. The former Lilyvale railway station was open from 1890 until 1983.

The Illawarra-Shoalhaven subtropical rainforest, or Illawarra Subtropical Rainforest (ISR), is a scattered rainforest community in the Illawarra region of New South Wales, Australia. Occurring just south of Sydney, it spans from the Royal National Park (north of Wollongong) to the Milton-Ulladulla district in the south, albeit in scattered fragments.

Lilyvale railway station is a former railway station on the Illawarra (South Coast) railway line in New South Wales, Australia. The first Lilyvale station opened in 1890 as 'Lilydale' station to service the small village of Lilyvale. This first Lilyvale station was located just south of the southern portal of the Lilyvale tunnel at the northern end of the Bulgo or Otford valley. To the north were the original Metropolitan Colliery siding junction with signal box and short platform and then Helensburgh station. To the south were Vickery siding and Otford station and sidings. The first Lilyvale station consisted of a single platform and weatherboard building on the western side of the original single track alignment. A road passed over a level crossing of the railway line between the tunnel and the station. This crossing was an Accommodation Works crossing under the Public Works Act and cannot be closed by the railways or government so users still have a right to cross the railway. New alignment sections of the railway were constructed between Cawley and Clifton from 1912 to 1915 and the new dual track passed through a new tunnel just to the east of the old Lilvale tunnel and at a slightly lower elevation. A second Lilyvale railway station, just to the south of the original opened in 1915. The second station consisted of two side platforms with weatherboard buildings and a steel overhead footbridge. Just to the south was a single lane brick vehicle bridge which was built as Accommodation Works under the Public Works Act and cannot be closed by the railway or government. Lilyvale station was serviced by mainline Thirroul-Waterfall trains, but train ceased to service the station in 1983. The weatherboard buildings had long been removed and the station and bridges were demolished with the electrification of the line in 1989. As the vehicle bridge was an Accommodation Works crossing under the Public Works Act users have a right to cross the railway.

Lilyvale railway tunnels are heritage-listed railway tunnels on the Illawarra railway line at Lilyvale, City of Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia. It was designed and built by the then-New South Wales Government Railways. The property is owned by RailCorp, an agency of the Government of New South Wales. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999.

Otford railway station is located on the South Coast railway line in New South Wales, Australia. It serves the village of Otford opening on 3 October 1888. Two refuge sidings existed north of the station until removed in the 1980s.

The Metropolitan Colliery is a coal mine located near Helensburgh, New South Wales owned by Peabody Energy. It was opened by in 1887 by the Cumberland Coal & Iron Mining Company. In 1965, the mine was purchased by Australian Iron & Steel. A proposed sale to South32 in 2016 was abandoned after the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission refused to approve it.Coal is exported from Port Kembla with the mine connected to the Illawarra railway line via a spur line. The company is currently mining underneath the protected 'Special Area' of the Woronora Reservoir catchment, directly underneath the Reservoir. In 2020, over 10,000 people signed a petition calling on the mining to stop, as a result of concerns about water quality and subsidence damage.The text of the petition read as follows: "This Petition of residents of Southern Sydney and the Greater Sydney region brings to the attention of the House the risk that longwall coal mining under Woronora Dam brings to our water supply. We have a right to expect a clean and secure water supply, unpolluted by contaminants. The government is required under the Water NSW Act 2014 to ensure this. Metropolitan’s longwall mines have already caused serious damage to the Woronora Dam catchment area – WaterNSW’s submission to the Independent Report into Mining in the Catchment notes the detrimental impact Metropolitan’s longwall mines 23-27 have had on the Eastern Tributary of the Waratah Rivulet, with ‘Unexpectedly high levels of surface cracking (along the creek and at pool / rockbars) and consequent drying of a large proportion of pools.’ (p.B4) Two swamps that filter and clean our water have also shown signs of drying out – with groundwater levels ‘not having recovered many years after completion of mining.’ (p.B5) Further damage has occurred at the main part of the Rivulet, with riverbeds seriously fractured and pools completely drained. WaterNSW note mining in this area has resulted in ‘environmental consequences [that] have caused (or are likely to cause) breaches in conditions in the relevant development consents, including performance criteria to protect watercourses and Sydney’s drinking water catchment’; and, there are ‘numerous deficiencies in the manner that analysis and modelling is currently being used to support mining applications.’ (p.1, p.7) The area around Woronora catchment is a ‘Special Area’ – so protected that people are not even allowed to walk in there – fines for doing so can be up to $44,000. Metropolitan longwall mines LW20-27 in this same catchment area have already caused significant and unacceptable damage. Metropolitan’s current proposal to mine under the dam itself - LWs 303-317 - poses a far more aggressive threat. WaterNSW notes ‘there is a high level of uncertainty about the likely success of future remediation efforts in both watercourses and swamps.’ (p.5) Injecting polyurethane into cracks to ‘remediate' damage that has already been caused, and may be caused in the future is not an acceptable solution. The undersigned petitioners therefore ask the Legislative Assembly to stop further threats to our water supply and rescind the development consents that permit mining in this area."The petition was debated in NSW State Parliament in 2020, and was rejected by NSW State Labor, and Liberal National Party politicians.In 2022 the Colliery achieved notoriety for polluting Australia's oldest National Park, following the discharge of coal sludge and waste into a creek running into the Hacking River, which flows through the length of park out into Port Hacking itself. The event was reported on all major Australian news outlets.

Otford is a village in the Otford Valley located 55 km south of the Sydney and 30 km north of the Wollongong CBD in New South Wales, Australia. Otford is within the local government area of the City of Wollongong.

Helensburgh is a small town, located 45 kilometres (28 mi) south of Sydney and 35 kilometres (22 mi) north of the Wollongong central business district and north and above the Illawarra escarpment and region. Helensburgh is in the Wollongong City Council local government area. It is surrounded by bushland reserves adjacent to the southern end of the Royal National Park and Garawarra State Conservation Area and the Woronora reservoir water catchment is to its west.

Stanwell Tops is an exurban locality between the cities of Sydney and Wollongong on the New South Wales, Australia coastline. It lies northwest of Stanwell Park and southwest of Otford.

Lady Carrington Drive is a designated scenic bicycle trail located in the Royal National Park that runs from Audley to the southern precinct of the park east of Waterfall, alongside the Hacking River. Opened in 1886, the 10-kilometer long trail was the first scenic route to be completed in the Royal National Park, seven years after the park was officially declared. It initially served as a carriageway, although traffic on the road is closed, and the trail now serves as a bike and walking trail. The route bypasses many scenic points along the Hacking River, including Gibraltar Rock and Palona Cave.

Bald Hill is a hill on the Illawarra Range, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. With an elevation of approximately 180 metres (590 ft) AMSL, Bald Hill is one of the best known and most popular lookouts in the Illawarra region providing panoramic vistas across the Illawarra escarpment and over the Illawarra plain and the Tasman Sea of the South Pacific Ocean.The nature reserve on the hill is internationally renowned as a major hang gliding and paragliding site. It was on the beach below Bald Hill that Lawrence Hargrave, an Australian pioneer of flight, experimented with box kites in the early part of the 20th century. A memorial cairn dedicated to Hargrave is located at the peak of the hill near the car park.