This locomotive was originally Public Works Department (PWD) No.35 (the second PWD locomotive to carry this number), having been purchased for use on the State Metal Quarries at Kiama. It is sometimes referred to as 'Wollondilly' and is also known as "The Kiama Fowler" and was originally going to be the ILRM No. 5 locomotive.
PWD 35 entered preservation as early as 1958 when it moved to the Marsden Museum of Historic Engines at Goulburn. Here it was initially used as a stationary boiler for the magnificent Appleby Beam Engine which pumped fresh water to the City of Goulburn and is the centrepiece of the Marsden Museum. PWD 35 later joined the growing collection of 2' gauge steam locomotives at the Marsden Museum, with photographs showing that it was used on the 2' gauge tourist line which was once a feature of that site. In 1974 the locomotive was purchased for private preservation and dispatched to a Sydney location.
Around 1985 there was a proposal to rebuild a portion of the Kiama quarry railway as a tourist attraction, with the Kiama Fowler central to the proposal. The locomotive was displayed at Kiama for a period during 1986 & 1987 prior to being placed in storage at the Illawarra Light Railway & Museum Society (ILRMS), Albion Park. Alas the proposal for a tourist railway at Kiama did not achieve Council approval and the Kiama Fowler remained stored for many years in the loco shed at Albion Park. It was donated to the ILRMS in 1998.
My visit to the ILRMS Albion Park on 3 May 2015 found restoration and repair work on the Kiama Fowler now underway, with a return to service anticipated in a few years. Among the work to be undertaken is replacement of the heavily pitted smokebox door.
The Illawarra Light Railway & Museum Society website includes a page for Wollondilly providing a brief history and additional photos of this interesting industrial locomotive.
A large and diverse range of steam locomotives once served the various industrial operations situated in the Illawarra; each of these have been documented in Ken McCarthy's book "'Gazetteer of Industrial Steam Locomotives, Illawarra District NSW'" which makes for interesting reading for ferroequinologists.
Wollondilly now left the ILRMS and is now going to a new railway called the Timbertown Heritage Steam Railway in Wauchope, NSW.