The Escarpment https://escarpment.au/ News for the Illawarra: Wollongong, Shellharbour and Kiama. The Escarpment reads the region's council business papers, project pages, budget documents and releases end to end, cites what it reads, and reports what it means. en Port Kembla's vehicle imports rose 26 per cent in August. The national new-car market rose 0.4 https://escarpment.au/port-and-industry/vehicle-imports-outpacing-national-market/ https://escarpment.au/port-and-industry/vehicle-imports-outpacing-national-market/ Wed, 30 Sep 2026 22:49:31 GMT NSW Ports' monthly trade reports put Port Kembla's imported motor vehicles at 81,324 units for the first two months of FY27 against 57,148 a year earlier, up 42.3 per cent, while the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries recorded a national market up 0.4 per cent in August. Kiama takes a quarter of Wollongong's visitors and earns more from each one https://escarpment.au/news/visitor-economy-wollongong-kiama/ https://escarpment.au/news/visitor-economy-wollongong-kiama/ Fri, 28 Aug 2026 18:23:48 GMT Tourism Research Australia's local government area profiles put Wollongong at 4,114,000 visitors and $999 million and Kiama at 1,149,000 and $375 million, but Kiama ahead on spend per trip and per night. Two-year average for 2023 to 2024. The only two offences rising in Wollongong are both domestic violence. Across NSW the same measure is flat https://escarpment.au/news/wollongong-domestic-violence-assault-rising/ https://escarpment.au/news/wollongong-domestic-violence-assault-rising/ Fri, 28 Aug 2026 01:25:33 GMT BOCSAR's local government area tables for the 12 months to March 2026 show three offences with a statistically significant two-year trend in Wollongong. Domestic violence related assault is up 22.5 per cent, breaching an apprehended violence order is up 14.7 per cent, and drug possession is down. Across NSW, domestic violence related assault is stable. Shellharbour and Kiama show no significant movement either. Wollongong has more residents per councillor than all but seven NSW councils. Kiama has fewer than the state median https://escarpment.au/councils/residents-per-councillor/ https://escarpment.au/councils/residents-per-councillor/ Tue, 25 Aug 2026 02:46:00 GMT From the NSW Office of Local Government's Your Council time series data for 2024-25: Wollongong has 221,894 residents and 13 councillors, 17,069 each, ranking 8th of the 127 councils that reported. Shellharbour has 81,566 and 9 councillors, 9,063 each, ranking 28th. Kiama has 23,173 and 9 councillors, 2,575 each, ranking 66th and below the state median of 3,038. The three councils sit inside one region and differ by a factor of 6.6. Port Kembla is the state's biggest car and grain terminal, not just a steel port https://escarpment.au/news/port-kembla-what-it-handles/ https://escarpment.au/news/port-kembla-what-it-handles/ Sun, 23 Aug 2026 18:47:00 GMT An explainer on what Port Kembla actually handles, read from Transport for NSW's freight data hub: that it is NSW's largest terminal for vehicle imports and grain exports and the second largest for coal exports, and where the monthly tonnage data comes from, namely Australian Customs Service collection filtered by the ABS and supplied through MariTrade, monthly from 2005. The Mount Ousley traffic switch happened on 17 August. Here is what changed, and what closed overnight on 19 August https://escarpment.au/development-and-land/mount-ousley-traffic-switch/ https://escarpment.au/development-and-land/mount-ousley-traffic-switch/ Tue, 18 Aug 2026 02:20:00 GMT Transport for NSW moved traffic onto a newly built section of Mount Ousley Road on Monday 17 August 2026. Mount Ousley Road then closes fully between Gaynor Avenue and the M1 from 8pm Wednesday 19 August to 4am Thursday 20 August 2026. A $1.5 million Parkinson's platform lands at UOW. The Health Minister commissioned it, and no government put money in https://escarpment.au/health/uow-parkinsons-imaging-platform/ https://escarpment.au/health/uow-parkinsons-imaging-platform/ Tue, 18 Aug 2026 00:23:00 GMT The Parkinson's Research Foundation has funded a $1.5 million imaging platform at the University of Wollongong, supporting four research projects at Molecular Horizons. NSW Health Minister and Member for Keira Ryan Park commissioned it, but the money is philanthropic rather than public. Livestreaming your council meeting is optional again. All three Illawarra councils say they still do it https://escarpment.au/news/meeting-livestream-three-councils/ https://escarpment.au/news/meeting-livestream-three-councils/ Sun, 16 Aug 2026 04:05:00 GMT The NSW Legislative Council disallowed the 2025 Model Code of Meeting Practice in May 2026, reinstating the 2021 code under which a council may publish a meeting recording after the meeting rather than stream it live. The Escarpment checked the published record for Wollongong, Kiama and Shellharbour. The state made livestreaming council meetings optional again. Wollongong is keeping it https://escarpment.au/councils/wollongong-meeting-code/ https://escarpment.au/councils/wollongong-meeting-code/ Tue, 04 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT What the May 2026 disallowance of the 2025 Model Code of Meeting Practice changed, and what Wollongong's draft code does about it. The Illawarra is getting Australia's first urban renewable energy zone, and it is looking for locals to sit on it https://escarpment.au/news/illawarra-rez-community-reference-group/ https://escarpment.au/news/illawarra-rez-community-reference-group/ Thu, 30 Jul 2026 17:05:00 GMT Registrations for the Illawarra REZ Community Reference Group closed at 5pm on Monday 10 August 2026. As Australia's first urban Renewable Energy Zone it is being shaped around rooftop solar, home and community batteries, spare government land and commercial roof space. The new Shellharbour Hospital has topped out. Completion is not the same as opening https://escarpment.au/news/shellharbour-hospital-tops-out/ https://escarpment.au/news/shellharbour-hospital-tops-out/ Tue, 28 Jul 2026 02:00:00 GMT The eight-storey hospital at Dunmore reached its highest point on 23 July 2026, four years after the site was secured. Health Infrastructure says construction finishes in late 2027, and no opening date has been published. What the $828.9 million actually buys, and the three parts of the project already finished. Three councils, one region: what the numbers actually say about the Illawarra https://escarpment.au/news/state-of-the-illawarra-2026/ https://escarpment.au/news/state-of-the-illawarra-2026/ Sat, 18 Jul 2026 23:10:00 GMT Wollongong has ten times Kiama's population; Kiama's median age is nine years older than everyone else's; Shellharbour rents ran ahead of Wollongong's even in 2021. A baseline portrait of the region from the Census and Kiama's live economic profile. How long does a DA take here? Wollongong 103 days, Kiama 84, Shellharbour 58, against a target that just got harder https://escarpment.au/news/da-assessment-league-table/ https://escarpment.au/news/da-assessment-league-table/ Sat, 18 Jul 2026 23:00:00 GMT The state's council league table puts average DA assessment at 103 days in Wollongong, 84 in Kiama and 58 in Shellharbour for 2025-26. The statewide benchmark was 105 days, and from 1 July it tightened to 95. The Illawarra's health district changed chief executive on 20 July, and the outgoing boss inherits the problem that defined her tenure https://escarpment.au/news/islhd-chief-executive-change/ https://escarpment.au/news/islhd-chief-executive-change/ Sat, 18 Jul 2026 22:50:00 GMT Margaret Martin becomes chief executive of the Illawarra Shoalhaven Local Health District from 20 July. Margot Mains departs after 12 years with the district for a new NSW Health role coordinating aged care and disability reform. The Illawarra offshore wind zone is dormant, not dead. The difference is worth getting right https://escarpment.au/news/offshore-wind-zone-dormant-not-dead/ https://escarpment.au/news/offshore-wind-zone-dormant-not-dead/ Sat, 18 Jul 2026 22:40:00 GMT No feasibility licences exist and the one applicant, BlueFloat, has withdrawn. But the 1,022 square kilometre declared zone off the Illawarra coast remains legally in effect and can reopen for applications. What the declaration actually did, what lapsed, and what is still live. BlueScope has rezoned 200 hectares at Port Kembla, while an unresolved takeover question hangs over the whole works https://escarpment.au/news/bluescope-port-kembla-200-hectares/ https://escarpment.au/news/bluescope-port-kembla-200-hectares/ Sat, 18 Jul 2026 22:30:00 GMT Whoever ends up owning BlueScope, the company is already changing what its Port Kembla land is for: 200 hectares of non-operational land rezoned for a wider range of uses. Beside that sits an unresolved takeover approach from SGH and Steel Dynamics, reported here strictly from BlueScope's own ASX releases. Mount Ousley is half built. Much of the rest of the pipeline is earlier than the announcements sound https://escarpment.au/news/illawarra-project-pipeline-winter-2026/ https://escarpment.au/news/illawarra-project-pipeline-winter-2026/ Sat, 18 Jul 2026 22:20:00 GMT Transport for NSW's own June update puts the $390 million Mount Ousley interchange at 52 per cent complete, with the first big traffic switch due mid to late 2026. Around it sits a pipeline of announced projects at very different stages, including one, Picton Road, that is funded for planning only. Kiama gets an extra year to balance the budget, and a tighter leash to go with it https://escarpment.au/news/kiama-extra-year-balanced-budget/ https://escarpment.au/news/kiama-extra-year-balanced-budget/ Sat, 18 Jul 2026 22:10:00 GMT Kiama Council has unanimously accepted a varied Performance Improvement Order: balance the budget a year later, by 2027-28, in exchange for tighter conditions, including a ban on outsourcing domestic waste and a business case for Blue Haven Terralong. Gwynneville's 1,200-home renewal moves ahead, wound back from high-rise after residents pushed back https://escarpment.au/news/gwynneville-1200-homes-next-stage/ https://escarpment.au/news/gwynneville-1200-homes-next-stage/ Sat, 18 Jul 2026 22:00:00 GMT Wollongong City Council has endorsed the rezoning for Homes NSW's Gwynneville renewal: up to 1,200 homes, 60 per cent social and affordable, at three to six storeys instead of the high-rise first proposed. The infrastructure deal is now on exhibition.