Wollongong City and District
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The following is only a taste, for more information, visit the Tourism Wollongong website
Wollongong University Kendo - Iaido - Jodo Dojo
Founded initially as a Kendo Dojo by our founding sensei Ted Rixon about 20 years ago, the UoWKC has extended its repertoire to include seitei Iaido and seiteiJodo as well as interests in koryu study. We enjoy strong links and regular visits with various Kendo, Iaido & Jodo clubs in Sydney. As with any University based Dojo, our membership is largely transitory, with a core of longterm regulars (most notably David & Shoko Bunder and Aden Steinke) and many fresh new faces constantly supplied every year from the 10,000+ student body and elsewhere.
The UoWKC mon is an abstract representation of the unique geography of the district ... the flat-topped Mount Keira (which dominated the skyline west of the dojo) and the Pacific Ocean. It is rendered in the city colours Red & White, as worn by our powerful StGeorge-Illawarra Dragon ARL rugby league team, the Wollongong Hawks NBL basketball team and the Wollongong Wolves soccer team. Fiery Red is the colour of the unique Illawarra Flame Trees whose flame-red flowers highlight the wet sclorofil rainforested slopes of the overhanging western escarpment.
Location
Wollongong is located 100km south of Sydney on the shores of the Pacific Ocean. It is unique in its eye-catching landform, being built on a narrow plain between a 300m cliffwall (the escarpment) and the ocean. The district of Wollongong is called the Illawarra, an aboriginal name which means 'between the mountains and the sea'.
Shops
Wollongong features several large and modern shopping districts (most notably the main Crown Street City Mall in the CBD) with numerous major chains including DavidJones and Meyers. You can eat virtually any kind of food from a wide range of restaurants featuring a wide array of ethnic cuisines.
Transport
Being built on a relatively narrow strip of land between the ocean and the cliffs, Wollongong is an oddly linear (rather than concentric) city, As a result, most major transport corridors run purely North-South. There are regular local train services along the Illawarra line (which runs north to Sydney and south to Nowra). Several private bus companies also run regular services around the city. Of course there are plenty of taxis as well.
Botanical Gardens
Immediately across the road from the University (5 minutes walk from the Dojo) are the lush grounds of the Wollongong Botanical Gardens which extend west into the grounds of the Conservatorium of Music. These restful and beautiful gardens are free to enter, but beware the gates close at around 16:45, so its best to visit them before the close of training each day.
Nan Tien Temple [link]
Just south of the city rests the peaceful Nan Tien Buddhist Temple. The largest temple in the southern hemisphere, Nan Tien is host to a Taiwanese order of Buddhist Nuns. The temple features a small museum, a gift shop and a restaurant which serves cheap and plentiful vegitarian meals.
the spectacular
grounds of the NanTien Buddhist Temple
Mount Keira & Sublime Point lookouts
You cannot help but notice the incredible view as you enter Wollongong from the escarpment (the mountainous cliff-wall to the west) and if that is not enough for you, then a short drive up the hill allows you to sample this spectacle again from the lookouts of Mount Keira or Sublime Point.
now THAT's
a view!
We hope to be able to offer numerous casual free trips up to the MtKeira lookout in the minivan during the weeklong event.
The Five Islands Brewing Company [link]
Located at the extreme eastern end of Crown Street, in the Illawarra Entertainment Centre, home to the Wollongong Hawks basketball team on the foreshore of South Beach. This local boutique Brewery boasts at least 5 types of specialist beer and a restaurant. At the time of this writing beer is only available on tap, but we are informed that by January there may be an off-licence granted and their fine selections may be available by the bottle.
Port Kembla "Industry World" [link]
Yes, believe it or not, the heavy-industrial zone of the region (its most famous, or infamous feature) is marketted by the Leisure Coast tourism as "Industry World" ... well I suppose its recycling of a sort ...
the BOS furnace
and the CoalLoader at Australia's Industry World, Port Kembla
Belmore Basin
The historic harbour of pre-industrial Wollongong. Now home to the fishing fleet and a hugely popular tourist stop. Belmore Basin hosts one of the best fish'n'chip shops you'll ever encounter, but it has two small problems: (1) it is so popular you can wait 30 minutes just to get to the counter on busy public holidays and (2) once you have your food, the feisty local seagulls will do their best to relieve you of it !
two view of the
beautiful Belmore Basin
cheeky local seagulls
are always eager to please - themselves
Lake Illawarra
South of Wollongong lies the large Lake Illawarra home to numerous yachtiung clubs. The shallow waters of the lake are slowly silting up and geologists predict the area will be a rich coal-bed in just a few hundred thousdand years.
Symbio Gardens Wildlife Park [link]
This popular wildlife park is about 30 drive North-West from Wollongong, up the escarpment. It features a broad selection of Australian Fauna and Flora and the opportunity to get up close and personal with many creatures normally seen only on coins or postcards.
Stanwell Park [link]
Just 15 minutes by car north of Wollongong is the amazing Stanwell Tops. The treveller is rewarded with some of the most breathtaking coastal views in the world. On the peak of this oceanside bluff is Stanwell Park, home to hang-gliding in Australia. On most weekends you can enjoys hours of free entertainment watching the hang gliders doing their thing in the strong onshore updraft. It is from this very hill that flight pioneer Lawrence Hargrave flew his famous box-kites and carried out the research that led him to instruct the American Wright Brothers in aeonautical theory, allowing them to build theiur famous box-kite craft. (Thus Wollongong, not Kittyhawk is the true home of the invention of manned flight - just ask any local!). In one famous instance he flew out to sea under one of his inventions and was left clinging to the mast of a sunken ship just off the coast! Just down the road from the Hargrave memorial is the historic home where noted author D.H.Lawrence lived while he wrote his short novel Kangaroo.
Captain Cook noted the unique landform of the Wollongong area as he sailed by, and named one prominent domed peak "Hat-Hill", which is now known as Mount Kembla.
The famous national circumnavigational voyage by Bass & Flinders in their tiny boat the Tom Thumb stopped in at the south coast, just north of the centre of modern Wollongong. There they were obliged to entertain the curious local aboriginal people with exhibitions of shaving and by providing haircuts whilst they repaired the boat and let their gunpowder and food dry.
The district was noted for its lush groves of Red Cedar, and earliest european settlement was by cedar-getters who dragged the trees up steeply cut tracks in the escarpment with bullock drays. Several of the modern roads down to Wollongong follow the paths of these earliest bullock tracks.
Later it was discovered that the exposed cliffs of the escarpment ran rich with massive veins of coal. Initially coal was dug directly from the cliff-face where it reaches the sea, and crude wooden docks allowed sailing vessels from Sydney to make perilous birth alongside the crashing waves. A permanent settlement quickly sprang up and a harbour (Belmore Basin) and lighthouse were constructed to support the coal industry. Coking ovens were constructed near the harbour - the earliest expression of the heavy industrial period that followed ...
Wollongong is perhaps best known (though perhaps unfairly) for its huge and highly productive Steelworks south of the city at Port Kembla. The steelworks attracted many thousands of postwar migrant workers from all over the world (notably Italy) and this made Wollongong the highly cosmopolitan city it is now (over 40 languages spoken by just 200,000 people!). At its height, the works employed over 50,000 people ~ but the crash in world commodity prices and the desertion of the district by BHP-Billiton have reduced the works to a shadow of their former selves.
Established initially as an engineering college of the University of NSW (to service the steelworks), the University of Wollongong has grown to become the best known 'non-sandstone' campus in the country. It now accounts for a greater part of the economy of the city than the steelworks it was established to serve. The University sits in perhaps the most beautifully landscaped and pleasant campus grounds anywhere in Australia and has regularly attracted the highest awards in the Australian Higher Education Sector, being named University fo the Year repeatedly, and outperforming even the sandstone giants of the major cities in several key criteria.
Wollongong is, of course, also a tourist town. Spectacular scenery a pleasant climate, beautiful beaches and modern amenities make the Leisure Coast area the playground of Sydney.