The suburb, a semi-rural township of Wollongong, gets its name from the mountain, located on the Illawarra escarpment, is derived from an Aboriginal word, kembla, meaning "plenty of game".

The village is accessible from Wollongong, via Cordeaux Road, named after early settlers; and from Mount Keira via Harry Graham Drive.

The Mount Kembla Colliery was established in 1883, and the purpose-built township was constructed by the company to house the employees.

The community thrived until late-1970 when the mine closed and the town went into decline, losing its general store, post office, Presbyterian church, tennis courts and public telephones during the following years.

[12] They accepted that under normal circumstances the ventilation would deal with the problem but "This result ... leads the Commission irresistibly to the conclusion ... that, given favourable conditions for accumulation, a dangerous collection might be found in almost any part of the workings".

The mixture started to travel outbye[f] before being stopped by the ventilation air current and forced back inbye.

[g] Some of the gas travelled ahead of the main pocket further inbye where it met the naked light used by a wheeler at the 4th Left junction.

Over the period from 1 August to 12 September 1902 the inquest sat on 22 days hearing evidence from 28 witnesses and visiting the mine.

The Jury returned a verdict that the Meurant brothers and William Nelson "came to their death … from carbon monoxide poisoning produced by an explosion of fire-damp ignited by the naked lights in use in the mine, and accelerated by a series of coal-dust explosions starting at a point in or about the number one main level back headings, and extending in a westerly direction to the small goaf, marked 11 perches [180 ft; 55 m] on the mine plan.

[20] Rather than holding any individual official of the Mount Kembla Company responsible, the Commission stated that only the substitution of safety lamps for flame lights could have saved the lives of the 96 victims.

Some of the dead were buried in Mount Kembla's village cemetery, which also contains a 2.5-metre (8 ft 2 in)-tall memorial to the disaster, listing the names of the miners and two rescuers who perished.

The majority were buried in the more remote Windy Gully cemetery, 1.5 kilometres (0.93 mi) south-west of the village,[21] at which an annual memorial ceremony is observed during the Mt Kembla Mining Heritage Festival on the weekend after 31 July.

While navigating the east coast of Australia, he noted it as 'a round hill', its top resembling a hat.

In addition to mining, Mount Kembla has a significant agricultural history; in particular the Cordeaux Valley area which was one of Australia's top fruit growing industries, exporting as far away as London in its hey day as one of the country's best apples producers.

[citation needed] Mount Kembla is known for producing or attracting creative people; painters, poets, writers, photographers and history buffs are inspired by the area.

Notable people include: Mount Kembla is joined to the sandstone cliffs of the Illawarra escarpment, overlooking Wollongong.

The summit is 534 metres (1,752 ft) above sea level[2] and is a prominent local landmark, where it has a lookout linked to a 5.5-kilometre (3.4 mi) ring track.

The mountain is a high outcrop of mainly sandstone in a roughly east–west ridge extending from the escarpment to about 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) to its east.

It has a summit plateau divided into two sections, the higher one raised slightly above the west one, forming a small rise at the top.

The ridge descends from the plateau and the mountain is generally quite thin at the top, widening below to create foothills that extend into the outer western suburbs of Wollongong and Unanderra.

Mount Kembla forms part of the Illawarra Escarpment State Conservation Area, which stretches from Stanwell Park in the north to Wongawilli in the south.

Common birds are lyrebirds, spotted turtle doves, kookaburras, satin bower birds, superb blue wrens, crimson rosellas, king parrots, white-headed pigeons, brown cuckoo-doves, silvereyes, eastern yellow robins, rainbow lorikeets, little wattlebirds, grey and pied butcherbirds, yellow-tailed black cockatoos, golden whistlers, topknot ("flocker") pigeons, wonga pigeons, Australian magpies, pied currawongs, Australian ravens, noisy miners, honeyeaters (Lewin's, New Holland, spinebill, yellow-faced) eastern whipbirds, white-browed scrub wrens, rufous fantails, red-browed finches, and welcome swallows.

The European and scientific discovery of the koala in Australia was made at Mount Kembla and took place between June–August 1803 and involved type specimens collected and brought into Sydney in August 1803 where they were immediately figured by botanical draughtsman Ferdinand Bauer (1760–1826) and described by noted botanist Robert Brown (1773–1858).

It goes down some stone steps into a gully that flows down into Dapto Creek and then goes along the southern side of the mountain through palm and fern growth before turning at a junction.

The right turnoff goes into private property on Farmborough Road, but the left goes north to the second watering hole and a mine entrance.

The track is signposted near the beginning warning of 'crumbling edges' but is also known for being saved from weathering and allowing easy access to the top.

Beside this track to the left (north) is an old carriageway built but not completed, after finding large sandstone boulders at the top, in the late 19th century.