Woolly yarns at Illawarra Folk Festival | January 17, 2026 | Illawarra Mercury - video Dailymotion

‘Big Russ’ Hannah spinning a woolly yarn at the Illawarra Folk Festival on January 17, 2026. Footage by Anna Warr

Transcript

00:00Well, the trouble with this yarn is that it is true.

00:05Those of you who live down here in Illawarra would know that the old Shell Harbour Railway Station

00:11is about four k's away from the Shell Harbour village.

00:16But it was still called Shell Harbour, and when David Hill was the head of the railways,

00:24he used to come down as an independent, he'd have a ticket, and he'd go to it just to make sure the railways were running properly.

00:32And he came down, he bought a ticket to Shell Harbour.

00:35And when he got to Shell Harbour and he got off the train, he looked around and all he could see was a cow paddock

00:41at about four houses at Dunmore.

00:44And he said to the young bloke who was collecting the tickets, he said,

00:49Where's the township of Shell Harbour?

00:51And the young bloke looked at him and said, Oh, it's about four or five k's up the road.

00:57He said, God, he said, that's strange.

00:59He said, wouldn't you have thought, he said, they'd have built the station closer to the township.

01:06And the young kid looked at him, he was a dill, and said, No, mate, he said,

01:11it's much better off down here near the railway line.

01:14And then they changed the name from Shell Harbour to Dunmore Shell Harbour.

01:21And there was an honour behind, that's strange.

01:22And then they заб claned on the railway line.

01:25And the railway line wasanguard off, along in the –

01:28And that