Archives reveal that race meetings were staged by the original Illawarra Turf Club as long ago as 1834 on the site of the present day Wollongong Golf Course, 26 years before racing began at Royal Randwick.

However, early in the twentieth century, Kembla Grange estate, the present site of Kembla Grange Racecourse, was purchased by the Hon. Joseph Carruthers, who designed a course almost identical in size and shape to Randwick.

Numerous organisations have been in charge of racing at Kembla Grange until the present Illawarra Turf Club was formed and conducted its first racemeeting on the 18th December 1976.