A Wonderful Weekend in Wollongong

Taking the prize for unexpected pleasure is the town of Wollongong. We were looking for somewhere to spend a couple of days outside Sydney. To the north we couldn’t find anywhere to stay within our budget, but Wollongong offered plenty of options.

Some hour and a half south of Sydney, the train leaves the suburbs and then passes through spectacular wooded hills, before teasing glimpses of the sea herald the town of Wollongong. Wollongong lies on the coast with a busy harbour on its south side, a university to the north, and several great beaches in the middle. For us it was the perfect place – very walkable size, ten minutes to the beach and ten minutes to the shopping precinct, plus several activities to keep the kids interested aside from the beach.

North Wollongong Beach

A great beach this, barely ten minutes walk from our AirBnB (one of the best we’ve stayed in during our travels btw, highly recommended). There is a new and well equipped public changing / showers / bathroom block alongside several cafés and restaurants. We would certainly recommend Bourke Street for next level burgers etc. The surf seemed fairly friendly and it is lifeguarded every day. We spent a long time here with Rafe and Dessa digging sandcastles, burying each other etc as kids do on beaches. There is a playpark to the north, and the surrounding green is used as the landing ground for the local skydiving club – the team swooping in was an unexpected sight for sure.

The beachside promenade takes you from here to town and onward to the marina. Along the way you pass a municipal length-swimming pool, but most intriguingly there’s also a saltwater bathing pool enclosed by the surrounding rocks – effectively a massive rock pool for swimming, known historically as the “Men’s Baths” – itself surrounded by rock pools for rock pooling too.

UoW Science Space

The University of Wollongong Science Space is a very hands on discovery centre aimed at helping kids learn about science fundamentals through fun activities. It is about 1km north of the beach so we wandered up mid-afternoon. We didn’t really know what to expect, but the kids got stuck in and there was more than enough to entertain. In fact we were there until closing time. A particular highlight was the machine set up to demonstrate the power of gearing. Through ten interconnected gears, it takes one million turns at one end to deliver one single turn as the other. Along the way several of the other gears deliver surprises at intervals too. We were able to release a rubber ball through the mechanism after a thousand turns!