Wollongong

[lennyr]

I took a few photos around Wollongong on the weekend. As usual clouds rolled out in time for the camera.

I'll start with a few pics of Port Kembla, taken from the roof of Wollongong Central and then from Flagstaff Hill (by the sea).









The steelworks is quite dominating. I wonder if whatever replaces it in 40 years will be as tall.

[lennyr]

These are from Wollongong Central and the surrounding area.




















The hospital in the background




From Flagstaff Point again

[Nick]

Nice to see some pictures of the Gong.

Do you think any real tallies will go up in the future.I remember going there 15 years ago.The city pretty much looks the same as it did back then

[Aussie Bhoy]

Cool, first time I have seen Wollongong pictures

[Nick]

Yeap.Its a bit of an unkown city to most.For a population or around 300,000(I could be wrong on that one) it lacks a CBD to fit for a city that size

[The Olderfleet]

Great to see pictures of Wollongong. If only we had more regional centre photos on this forum!

I have been to Wollongong many times, and while I find it a picturesque place to stay, I quite dislike the 'culture'. Frankly, Wollongong must have the noisiest citizens of any small city in Australia. I never get a peaceful nights sleep when I pass through there, ever.

But all is forgiven when I go up to Mt Bulli along that amazingly steep freeway and I can enjoy the views across the city. So spectacular!

[lennyr]

Thanks for the feedback guys.

I have to agree on the CBD size. It's comparable to regional centres in Sydney like Penrith and Liverpool. But there are plans emerging for two 24 story towers over the station and a 30 story tower at the eastern end of the CBD. It's getting very busy with tourism and immigration, so there could be alot of development in the near future.

[nerazzurri]

Nice pictures lennyr. Wollongong looks like a mass industrial city, but by those photos it so reminds me of a little town north of Rockhampton called Yeppoon.

[Bond James Bond]

Looks almost "gritty." For Australia at least.

[Oriolus]

Originally Posted by Aussie Bhoy

Cool, first time I have seen Wollongong pictures

Same here Aussie Bhoy. Before this thread all I knew about Wollongong was that there was a big arse industrial area at Port Kembla. Those are great pics lennyr. I'm impressed, Wollongong looks like a great place with a very attractive skyline.

Originally Posted by Nick

Do you think any real tallies will go up in the future.

Just having a look at the Wollongong projects thread, it seems like there's quite a bit going on - proposals up to 30 storeys.

Here's an aerial of Wollongong Cul posted in the above thread.

[lennyr]

Here's some more pics I took the same day of North Wollongong. This area has quite a few 8 storey apartment blocks, beside the obvious Creston Apartments (tallest in Gong for 23 years).















This is the most developed area in Wollongong.

[Nick]

I like this picture.Nice density.

[CanadianCentaur]

I like the pics of Wollongong.

I've been told by my dad, who grew up in parts of eastern NSW (although not on the Illawarra Coast), that Wollongong is pretty hemmed in between the mountains to the west and the sea to the east, and from some pics I've seen, he seems to be right.

Does Wollongong have much room to expand further in the future or not? Is most of the Illawarra Coast like that, having not much flat coastal land?

[Blue_Sky]

Is there any pic of University of Wollongong?

[lennyr]

I can get some uni pics. You barely notice it till your right inside the uni grounds.

As for the future of Wollongong, there is plenty of room to expand, but mostly south of the Wollongong CBD, and alot in the Shellharbour area. Probably about half the flat land is yet to be developed, being used for mainly farming and there is alot of industrial land. That might stay the same for awhile if all the industry keeps moving from Sydney. Houses are springing up all over this place.

[lennyr]

Found a website with lots of pics of the gong.

http://www.jblue.com.au/photos/wollongong/

Pretty self explanatory for me, though most pics probably won't have much meaning to out of towners.

But just look at the coast line!!

[falchoon]

an ugly town in a pretty location.

[CULWULLA]

well its improving all the time.its an industrial town so cant do much about poor old chimneys and pollution. but exciting new projects will definatley bring it up to par with other metro cities in Sydney.

[CanadianCentaur]

Can any of you tell me where Wollongong really ranks among the largest cities in NSW?

My sister's got a friend who's from Newcastle who's staying at her place (he's only doing so because he's trying to find an apartment in my city so he could stay in Canada until the end of April - not terribly easy given the economic boom and the extremely low vacancy rate), and that guy told me that Newcastle's the 3rd largest in NSW after Sydney and Wollongong. Is he right? Personally, I thought Newcastle's the 2nd largest city in NSW, with a population of just over 500,000.

[lennyr]

Newcastle has ~500,000
Wollongong has ~270,000
Central Coast has ~300,000

So I'd say Wollongong is fourth largest after Sydney, Newcastle and Central Coast.

And I'm pretty sure that figure for Wollongong includes Shellharbour and Kiama, maybe even Shoalhaven. No different to Newcastle including Port Macquarie and Hunter Valley.