Of the area around Bulli, Joseph Banks, the ship's botanist, was to write: "The country today again made in slopes to the sea."

Originally inhabited by Dharawal Aboriginal people, European wood cutters worked in the area from about 1815.

[3] The Bulli Coal Company opened a mine in 1862 on the escarpment and built cottages to house miners and their families.

On 23 March 1887, a gas explosion in the mine killed 81 men and boys, leaving 50 women widows and 150 children without fathers.

A memorial obelisk listing the names of those who perished is situated in Park Road, Bulli, adjacent to the railway line.

The jury then added a rider: "which was brought about by the disregard of the Bulli Colliery Special Rules and Coal Mines Act, in allowing men to work when gas existed".

Within the Hill End District the air passed through each of six headings in turn before being ejected by a furnace at the foot of an upcast shaft.

The old railway line from the mine to the coast has mostly been removed, but as you drive south into Bulli you will see the bridge it was set in, now used as a walkway over the highway after a fatal car accident involving a school child saw it restored.

It houses the repository or living collection of the Grevillea Study Group of the Australian Plants Society (previously SGAP).

The town has a small chain of commerce in its central district west of the station, and includes a newsagent and several specialty stores.

At Sandon Point and Tramway Creek immediately north of the promontory, there is some remnant bushland including turpentine forest.

Minister for Planning, Frank Sartor, however has overridden his COI to give Stockland and the Anglican Village Retirement Trust approval to add over 1000 residential houses and units.