Thirroul — D.H. Lawrence Country

In May 1922, the English novelist D.H. Lawrence and his German wife Frieda arrived in Thirroul (then called Robbinsville) and rented a house called 'Wyewurk' overlooking the Pacific Ocean. In just six weeks, Lawrence wrote 'Kangaroo,' a novel that captured the strange beauty and political undercurrents of Australia with an outsider's penetrating gaze. Wyewurk is considered one of the earliest examples of Californian Bungalow architectural influence in Australia, a modest weatherboard cottage that became briefly the centre of Australian literary life. Lawrence described the Illawarra escarpment as 'like a great wall of the world' and the ocean as having a quality of light found nowhere else. The town also holds cultural significance for Anita's Theatre, originally built as King's Theatre in 1925, one of the oldest continuously operating theatres in the Illawarra. Aboriginal occupation of the Thirroul area dates back over 20,000 years, with the Wodi Wodi people maintaining a deep connection to the coastline and escarpment.