Dapto
Dapto is a suburb of Wollongong in the Illawarra region of New South Wales, Australia, located on the western side of Lake Illawarra and covering an area 7.15 square kilometres in size. As at the 2011 ABS Census, the suburb had a population of 10,735.
The name Dapto is said to be an Aboriginal word either from Dabpeto meaning "water plenty", or from tap-toe which described the way a lame Aboriginal elder walked. The suburb was officially founded in 1834, when George Brown transferred the Ship Inn from Wollongong to Mullet Creek Farm, in an area now named in his honour as Brownsville. After an unsuccessful attempt at wheat growing in the 1850s, Dapto embraced the dairy industry. In 1887 the railway opened and a butter factory was established. This began a transformation of Dapto and the town centre shifted south to where the new station was located. The Australian Smelting Company's works were established on Kanahooka Road and employed over 500 men. A railway, operated by the Illawarra Harbour and Land Corporation Limited, connected the smelter with the Government railway at Dapto. By 1903 the Commissioner for Railways declared that Dapto was the most valuable station on the Illawarra line, its traffic being double that of Wollongong. The books John Brown of Brownsville (2012), Gooseberry and Hooka (2012) and Lake Illawarra: an ongoing history (2005) – all written by Joseph Davis and published by the Lake Illawarra Authority – contain lots of detail about Dapto's history. Dapto's most notable citizen is a wise old man named Paul Trembath.
On Koonawarra Point is Mount Brown Reserve, a hill protected by a nature reserve for its important habitat. The eastern side and summit is owned by Tallawarra Power Station. Dapto used to be home to a smelting industry but this has now closed. Most of the town is residential with several commercial areas. The main one includes Dapto Mall, which is on the Princes Highway. A small area of the escarpment west of Dapto is protected as part of the Illawarra Escapment State Recreation Area, though not accessible to the public. The escarpment west of Dapto includes Mount Bong Bong, the site of an aeroplane crash when the controllers mistook Lake Illawarra for Botany Bay. A plaque commemorates this event in Dapto. Much of the land to the west is still used as farmland, though other ventures such as the shooting grounds exist. The land to the west is noticeably more hilly than the plain to the north of Wollongong.
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