Notice: Council services over Easter Read more.
Use space to open navigation items
City of Wollongong

Looking back at the year so far

Thursday 4 November 2021

Image: New Wollongong CBD pop-up cycleway

As we move into a busy and exciting summer, we’re taking a moment to look back at some of the projects we’ve completed this year during lockdown.

We take pride in the work we do every day to help build an educated, creative and connected community. With so many of us only now able to leave lockdown, we thought we’d share some of the work we’re proud of that you can now enjoy.

“Council’s Community Strategic Plan outlines our vision and goals for the city and explains how we plan to achieve these ambitious targets over the next ten years,” Wollongong City Council General Manager Greg Doyle said.

“Right now, we’ve started the process of reviewing this Plan, by asking the community what they want to see happen into the future. Now’s the perfect time to reflect on some of the things Council has achieved thanks to the support of our community.”

Initial feedback on this project has now closed and we’re reviewing what our community said, to draft our next Plan. We’ll check back in with you and we’ll ask for feedback on the draft Community Strategic Plan in April 2022.

What we’ve been working on this year…

Goal 1: We value and protect our environment

Council aims to reach targets of net zero emissions by 2050 for the City of Wollongong and net zero emissions by 2030 for Council operations. One of the actions we’ve taken is to install solar panels on the multi-storey Stewart Street carpark to power Wollongong City Council’s Administration Building. We’re also calling for feedback on our draft Climate Change Adaption Plan which looks at the things we can do to prepare residents for a climate affected future.

This winter saw all hands-on deck as Council set a target of planting 250 new street trees in the Dapto area, which is one of the least shaded areas in our city. Not only did we achieve this target, but we were inundated with tree requests from residents across the city! We’re happy to say that we knocked this goal out of the park, planting more than 800 new street trees.

We’ve started to roll-out FOGO starter kits to unit complexes with 30 units or more that have an existing green-lidded bin! We expect to deliver FOGO kits to around 100 individual unit complexes which will help divert food waste out of landfill. This rollout is in addition to the delivery of a new roll of FOGO bin liners to our residents.

In Primbee, we’ve completed works to refurbish the popular boardwalk at Purry Burry Point Park. The boardwalk was constructed from recycled fibre reinforced plastic (FRP), a durable and environmentally friendly material that won’t warp, rot or decay when exposed to the elements.

Goal 2: We have an innovative and sustainable economy

Outside of lockdown restrictions, the Wollongong CBD is fast becoming a thriving space for businesses, cafes and local bars. Right now, we’re supporting local businesses make a post-COVID recovery. In September, we partnered with Investible to run online workshops that provided local businesses with the education, support and tools they need to thrive.

We’ve also worked hard to update our Outdoor Dining Policy to support local restaurants, bars and cafes make the most of outdoor dining. We’re also calling for feedback on a new policy, Council’s draft Mobile Food Vending Policy and Trial which will test ways to make it easier for mobile food vendors to trade in public spaces.

Goal 3: We have a creative, vibrant city

The 2022 UCI Road World Championships is something we’re really excited for! Next year we’ll showcase Wollongong to a global audience of more than 2 million people. Right now, we’re working closely with Wollongong 2022, the local organising committee and other partners, to make this event the best it can be.

On a smaller scale, but no less important, we’ve been working hard through lockdown to offer creative opportunities to our community, especially young people. One great online event from our Youth Services team saw local Aussie band, Hockey Dad talk to local fans.

Over in MacCabe Park, Wollongong we worked with The Disability Trust and a local artist to create a new interactive community mural. Up north, a new mural by well-known graffiti artist Brad Eastman has captured the soul of the Coledale community by drawing inspiration from a poem and the local landscape. At the same time, we recognise that our creative community have been doing it tough. We’re offering financial support to individuals and groups who have a great idea for a new creative project.

Goal 4: We are a connected and engaged community

In response to the pandemic, we provided one-off grants to local not-for-profit organisations who provide emergency food and care support to the people experiencing hardship due to COVID-19.

We’ve also continued to share opportunities with our community to work with us on a range of different projects, policies and initiatives. One of our most popular community projects, was our engagement on a new bike track for our northern suburbs. In only a few weeks, we received more than 500 comments from our community which was fantastic! The new bike trails will be ready before the end of the year, just in time for kids (big and little) lucky enough to get a bike off Santa to test their skills. We’ll confirm the northern suburbs site soon and right now  we’re getting ready to start work on two more bike tracks in Dapto and Fairy Meadow.

Our community came together to come up with a great idea to honour one of our local sporting superstars, Emma McKeon. Emma was honoured by the Wollongong community in recognition of her career to date, including her most recent successes in Tokyo which saw her celebrated as the highest Olympic medal holder in Australian Olympic history. With the help of our community, we decided to name the new North Beach Promenade and Terraces after Emma, which are currently under construction.

Goal 5: We have a healthy community in a liveable city

We have a commitment to improve cycling infrastructure for our community. We’ve been working hard to build new pop-up cycling routes in Port Kembla, Thirroul, Towradgi and the Wollongong CBD. With most of the work complete, we’re moving into next phase of this project. This means we’ll continue to assess the cycleways, make tweaks to the design when necessary and speak with our community to better understand how we can make improvements.

This month we completed a major milestone in the implementation of the Cringila Hills Recreation Master Plan with the opening of Council’s first Mountain Bike Park.

Back in July, we were excited to share the first glimpse of the proposed Warrawong Community Centre and Library. This is an exciting project that’s our community has been heavily involved in for a number of years. Now with concept designs ready and a site for the new building selected, we’re getting ready to finalise our design.


Want more Council news?

Visit our News page to find out what's happening in your community, or sign up for e-news.