Wollongong, colloquially referred to as The Gong, is a city located in the Illawarra region of New South Wales, Australia. The name is believed to originate from the Dharawal language, meaning either 'five islands/clouds', 'ground near water' or 'sound of the sea'. Wollongong lies on the narrow coastal strip between the Illawarra Escarpment and the Pacific Ocean, 85 kilometres south of central Sydney. Wollongong had an estimated urban population of 302,739 at June 2018, making it the third-largest city in New South Wales after Sydney and Newcastle and the tenth-largest city in Australia by population. The city's current Lord Mayor is Gordon Bradbery AM who was elected in 2021.
The Illawarra is a coastal region in the southeast of the Australian state of New South Wales. It is situated immediately south of Sydney and north of the South Coast region. It encompasses the two cities of Wollongong, Shellharbour and the coastal town of Kiama. Wollongong is the largest city of the Illawarra with a population of 240,000, then Shellharbour with a population of 70,000 and Kiama with a population of 10,000. These three cities have their own suburbs. Wollongong stretches from Otford in the north to Windang in the south, with Maddens Plains and Cordeaux in the west.
Mount Keira is a suburb and mountain in the Illawarra region of New South Wales, Australia.
Woonona is a suburb north of Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia, south of Sydney. It is served by Woonona Station on the South Coast Line, and by the Princes Highway.
The Illawarra escarpment, or officially the Illawarra Range, is the fold-created cliffs and plateau-eroded outcrop mountain range west of the Illawarra coastal plain south of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. The range encloses the Illawarra region which stretches from Stanwell Park in the north to Kiama, Gerringong and the Shoalhaven River in the south.
The South Coast refers to the narrow coastal belt from the Shoalhaven district in the north to the state border with Victoria in the south in the south-eastern part of the State of New South Wales, Australia. It is bordered to the west by the coastal escarpment of the Southern Tablelands, and is largely covered by a series of national parks, namely Jervis Bay National Park, Eurobodalla National Park, and Beowa National Park. To the east is the coastline of the Pacific Ocean, which is characterised by rolling farmlands, small towns and villages along a rocky coastline, interspersed by numerous beaches and lakes.
The Sydney Turpentine-Ironbark Forest (STIF) is a wet sclerophyll forest community of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, that is typically found in the Inner West and Northern region of Sydney. It is also among the three of these plant communities which have been classified as Endangered, under the New South Wales government's Threatened Species Conservation Act 1995, with only around 0.5% of its original pre-settlement range remaining.
In the state of New South Wales, Australia, there are many areas which are commonly known by regional names. Regions are areas that share similar characteristics. These characteristics may be natural such as the Murray River, the coastline, or the Snowy Mountains. Alternatively, the characteristics may be cultural, such as a viticulture land use. New South Wales is divided by numerous regional boundaries, based on different characteristics. In many cases boundaries defined by different agencies are coterminous.
Cryptocarya obovata is a species of laurel growing on basaltic and fertile alluvial soils in eastern Australian rainforests. It is found from Wyong in New South Wales to Gympie in the state of Queensland. Extinct in the Illawarra region, allegedly last seen in the Illawarra in 1818 by Allan Cunningham. The species was included in the Prodromus Florae Novae Hollandiae et Insulae Van Diemen, 402 (1810)
The Eastern Australian temperate forests is a broad ecoregion of open forest on uplands starting from the east coast of New South Wales in the South Coast to southern Queensland, Australia. Although dry sclerophyll and wet sclerophyll eucalyptus forests predominate within this ecoregion, a number of distinguishable rainforest communities are present as well.
The Robertson Nature Reserve is a protected rainforest nature reserve that is located in the Southern Highlands region of New South Wales, in eastern Australia. The 5.3-hectare (13-acre) reserve is situated near Robertson on the edge of the Illawarra Escarpment and is a remnant of the Yarrawa Brush, once 2,450 hectares in size.
The Kimberley tropical savanna is a tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannas, and shrublands ecoregion in northwestern Australia, covering portions of Western Australia and the Northern Territory south of the Timor Sea.
The Kangaroo River Nature Reserve, part of the Kangaroo Valley Group of Nature Reserves, is a protected nature reserve that is located on the floor of the Kangaroo Valley in the Southern Highlands and South Coast regions of New South Wales in eastern Australia. The reserve is situated approximately 150 kilometres (93 mi) south of Sydney, 50 kilometres (31 mi) southwest of Wollongong and 16 kilometres (9.9 mi) northwest of Nowra. The reserve has a protective covenant placed upon it with purpose to ensure the protection of the natural heritage of this area. National parks in the area include the Morton National Park and the Budderoo National Park. Other nature reserves in the area include the Barren Grounds Nature Reserve, and the Cambewarra Range, Barrengarry and Rodway nature reserves – the latter three part of the Kangaroo Valley Group of Nature Reserves.
The Cambewarra Range Nature Reserve, as part of the Kangaroo Valley Group of Nature Reserves, is a protected area located on the cliffs and plateaus of the Kangaroo Valley in the Southern Highlands and South Coast regions of New South Wales in eastern Australia. The Reserve is situated approximately 150 kilometres (93 mi) south of Sydney, 50 kilometres (31 mi) southwest of Wollongong and 16 kilometres (9.9 mi) northwest of Nowra. The Reserve has a total area of 1684 hectares, and includes 11 privately owned properties. It is critical for it to be pristine for a variety of reasons, not the least the catchment of water, as the Reserve floor flows into the Kangaroo Valley River and the Shoalhaven River, from which the Sydney Water Authority draws water to supply large populations in Sydney and Wollongong.
The Tongan tropical moist forests is a tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests ecoregion that includes the Tonga archipelago and Niue.
The Southern Highlands Shale Forest and Woodland is a mixed grassy woodland and sclerophyll-temperate forest community situated within the Southern Highlands region of New South Wales, Australia. An ecotone featuring clay soils derived from Wianamatta Group, it is listed as an endangered ecological community by the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 as less than 5% of the original extent remains today. Three varieties of the Shale Woodland exist: ‘typical’, ‘tall wet’ and ‘short dry’.
The Blue Mountains and Southern Highlands Basalt Forests are a sclerophyll temperate forest community that stretch from the northern fringes of the Blue Mountains to the Southern Highlands in New South Wales, Australia. Featuring both wet and dry sclerophyll forests, as well as small rainforest pockets, the community features tall (30m+) and open eucalypt forests and woodlands that lie on igneous rock.
Coastal Swamp Oak Forests, also known as Swamp Oak Floodplain Forests and Estuarine swamp oak forests, are scattered riparian forests found in southeastern Queensland to southeastern New South Wales, Australia that would predominantly feature Casuarina glauca. They occur within the South Eastern Queensland, NSW North Coast, Sydney Basin, or South East Corner bioregions.
The River-flat eucalypt forest or Coastal floodplain eucalypt forest is a critically endangered threatened ecological community that is primarily found in southeastern Australia, from southeastern Queensland, through New South Wales, to eastern Victoria, on alluvial soils of the coastal floodplains. The name chiefly refers to its riparian and floodplain landscape location and the predominant tree canopy being Eucalyptus, Angophora and/or Corymbia, which may exceed 40 m in height.
Rainforests and vine thickets are a major vegetation group in Australia. It consists of temperate to tropical rainforests, monsoon forests, and vine thickets. Rainforests and vine thickets are generally found in small pockets across the eastern and northern portions of the continent, including western Tasmania, eastern New South Wales, eastern Queensland, the northern portion of the Northern Territory, and the Kimberley Region of northeastern Western Australia.
