City of Shellharbour: History
Indigenous occupation of the area, particularly of Bass Point, can be traced back to 17,000 BCE.
The area was discovered by Europeans Bass and Flinders in 1796. Free settlers began arriving between 1817 and 1831 and the township was founded in 1851. The Shellharbour (Municipal) Council was constituted on 4 June 1859 following a proclamation in the New South Wales Government Gazette by the Governor Sir William Thomas Denison establishing the Municipality of Shellharbour under the Municipalities Act 1858. The municipality was proclaimed as the City of Shellharbour from 1 January 1996 by Governor Peter Sinclair and notified in the New South Wales Government Gazette on 22 December 1995. In May 2009, Shellharbour City Council celebrated its sesquicentenary.
A 2015 review of local government boundaries recommended that the City of Shellharbour merge with the City of Wollongong to form a new council with an area of 831 square kilometres (321 sq mi) and support a population of approximately 276,000. On 13 February 2017, the New South Wales Government decided not to forcibly amalgamate Shellharbour Council with Wollongong Council.