Port Kembla Wollongong, NSW Australia
Australia
Frequently Asked Questions
At the Port Kembla wharf, overlooked by the stacks, cranes and conveyors of the steelworks. The port is a working area closed to pedestrians: free shuttles link the wharf to central Wollongong in about fifteen minutes.
No. The port area is closed to pedestrians and you must take the shuttle. It runs in a loop all day, so you can come and go freely between the ship and Wollongong.
Sydney is about 85 kilometres north, but the round trip would swallow the day. The Wollongong region offers plenty for the call, between beaches, lighthouses, a Buddhist temple and a cliffside coastal road.
It's a rarity on the Australian coast: they stand a few hundred metres apart. The small green and white breakwater light has guarded the fishing harbour entrance since the 1870s, and its larger 1936 sibling crowns the grassy headland of Flagstaff Point.
The waterfront promenade between the two lighthouses, shared by joggers, cyclists and strollers facing the Pacific swell. Surfers work the break below the point from dawn, and the North Beach cafés make Australian coffee properly.
Described as the largest Buddhist temple in the Southern Hemisphere, about ten minutes by car from Wollongong: eight-storey pagodas, ochre tiled roofs and bodhisattva statues. Visitors are offered meditation introductions, calligraphy or a vegetarian meal prepared by volunteers.
The highlight of the Grand Pacific Drive north of Wollongong: 665 metres of deck suspended over the waves, lifting clear of the cliff face. A footpath lets you watch for dolphins and, in the southern winter, the blows of migrating humpback whales.
The shuttle into central Wollongong, the two Flagstaff Point lighthouses and the Blue Mile promenade, then the regional art gallery or a swim at North Beach. The Sea Cliff Bridge and Nan Tien need an organised excursion.
Yes, at North Beach or in the sea-water pools cut into the rock below the point, free to enter and busy with locals from first light. It's one of the finest local habits.
An open-air market on some days, shopping streets and the regional art gallery, one of the largest outside the Australian capitals, showing colonial painting and contemporary Aboriginal art. Allow an hour or two, on foot from the shuttle stop.
