Wollongong City Council has had staff on the ground across the weekend, and into this week, helping our community through these challenging weather conditions.
As of 12 noon today, Monday 4 July, a number of roads and facilities remain closed. These are:
Roads:
- Cordeaux Rd, Mt Kembla – due to landslide
- Marshall Mount Rd, Yallah – at the bridge
- Tuggerah Place, Berkeley – due to landslide
- Darkes Rd, Dapto at the second bridge
- Otford weir
Facilities:
- Continental Pool, Wollongong
- All sportsfields
“The weather we’ve experienced since Friday evening has been extraordinary and we acknowledge these have been challenging conditions for residents right across the city,” Wollongong City Lord Mayor Councillor Gordon Bradbery AM said.
“We have seen phenomenal amounts of rain in the past few days, and we’re not out of the woods yet with these wet weather conditions set to continue over the next few days. I thank all SES volunteers, those from the emergency services and Council staff who have been out in these awful conditions helping to keep our community safe.”
Wollongong City Council General Manager Greg Doyle said staff worked closely with the SES, Endeavour Energy and emergency services over the weekend to close flooded roads when necessary at the request of other agencies to make areas safe, and to clear up debris from landslides in Cordeaux Heights and Berkeley.
This work has continued today, with crews continuing to inspect key culverts across the city, and undertaking clean up works where it is safe to do so. At Darkes Road, crews are looking to carry out site set up works today and tomorrow to allow the bridge repairs to start as soon as possible.
“Given the weather we’ve experienced this year, our teams are well across what needs to happen to keep our city moving and they’ve been out working hard across the weekend,” Mr Doyle said.
“While the focus has been on roads, drainage and making areas safe following landslides, we’re anticipating we’ll also see some coastal erosion along our beaches and foreshore areas.
“We saw significant erosion events earlier this year after the April storms and the conditions we’ve had over the past few days will have an impact on the level of sand on some of our beaches. It can also put headlands at greater risk of rockfalls. It’s safest to avoid impacted beach erosion sites and rock headland areas altogether and that’s what we are asking our community to do.”
Fill-your-own sandbags are available at
- Rex Jackson Oval, Helensburgh,
- Bellambi overflow car park,
- Fairy Meadow Beach carpark
- Fred Finch Park carpark.
Residents should bring their own bags and shovel.
The SES has fill-your-own sandbags sites in place at:
- Windang next to the Bowling Club in Judbooley Parade
- Dapto – Showground (Mulda Street end)
The Wollongong Botanic Garden was closed on Saturday due to the volume of water in its grounds, and some areas where water flow has damaged paths. The Gardens have now reopened, with some areas including the playground remaining closed. The Continental Pool was closed on Sunday due to the large seas, and an assessment will be carried out later today as to whether it can reopen as normal tomorrow.
“I think for many the toughest part of these weather conditions has been closing of our sportsfields once again,” Mr Doyle said.
“It has been good to see play return to a number of our fields in recent weeks, and we’ve been working hard to get those that hadn’t yet opened in a condition where they could be played.
“There is no doubt this weather is a significant setback and it’s extremely unlikely that any sport will be played this coming weekend. Our teams will keep to assessing the fields across the week and will continue to work with local sporting clubs and associations on next steps.”
Cr Bradbery thanked those who had heeded the advice of emergency services and remained at home over the weekend.
“We have a wonderfully resilient community here in Wollongong and I thank those who have gone out of their way to look out for neighbours, check on friends and keep one another safe,” he said.
“While this weather feels a bit like Groundhog Day, we will get through this.”
Keep checking out Facebook and Twitter social pages for weather-related updates.
