Brighton Beach, Wollongong

A.P. Fleming (1969), Brighton Beach, Wollongong, Illawarra Historical Society, 1969, 14p. At the eastern junction of Cliff Road and Harbour Street, Wollongong, there is a small public reserve which has been named by the Council of the City of Greater Wollongong “BRIGHTON LAWN PARK.” The reserve was granted for Public Recreation on September 19, 1906, as “BRIGHTON LAWN.” It slopes eastward to the little beach known as “BRIGHTON BEACH” and this latter title today popularly includes the reserve. Directly opposite on the north-western corner of Cliff R o a d / Harbour Street, now occupied by cottages and flats, stood the "BRIGHTON” HOTEL, licensed 1854 as the Black Swan and demolished 1923. The genesis of this paper was the query “did the locality derive its name from the beach or the hotel?” A search in the Sydney newspapers of the 1830/40s period showed BRIGHTON to be applied to Wollongong as early as 1838 whereas the hotel was renamed the Brighton in 1856.