Wollongong

Wollongong is a coastal city in New South Wales, Australia, on a narrow strip between the Illawarra escarpment and the Tasman Sea. Wollongong is a word of the Dharawal language, and the Illawarra region around it is Dharawal country.

Cedar cutting began on the coast in the 1810s, and Charles Throsby ran cattle on the plain soon after. Wollongong was laid out near the harbor and proclaimed a town in 1834. Coal from the escarpment was mined from the middle of the 19th century and shipped from small jetties along the coast. Steelmaking at Port Kembla began in the 1920s, and Wollongong was declared a city in 1942. Lawrence Hargrave, the aviation pioneer, lifted himself off the ground with a train of his box kites on the beach at Stanwell Park, now in the north of the city.

BlueScope runs the Port Kembla Steelworks, where iron ore and local coal are turned into flat steel for roofing and car bodies. The harbor at Port Kembla imports new cars for Sydney and ships out coal and grain. The University of Wollongong grew from a college of the University of New South Wales into a university of its own in the 1970s.

Nan Tien Temple, a Buddhist temple of the Fo Guang Shan order, rises on a hill in the west of the city with a pagoda and gardens. The Sea Cliff Bridge carries the coast road out over the water around the cliffs north of the city. Wollongong Head is crowned by the Breakwater Lighthouse, built of iron plates in the 1870s, and by a newer lighthouse on the headland beside it.