Wollongong is the third largest city in New South Wales - and it has an identity crisis ! Is it to become a leading city in its own right, or is it to become an appendage of Sydney, simply a dormitory where workers sleep before making their way to jobs in the city of the Harbour bridge.
When the first fleet arrived in 1788 one of the first challenges was to find a source of energy. Survivors of a shipwreck found a seam of coal protruding from the cliff face at what is now Coalcliff and a rough road was punched through the bush to get this important mineral to Sydney. The rich agricultural land of the Illawarra was quickly settled and as coal mining flourished it became the logical site for our first steel manufacturing industry.
Topography put limitations on access. The Illawarra sheltered behind a massive escarpment and in the early days a winding road down Bulli Pass was the main access road in and out. This limitation caused the state government to implement a rail link between the coalfields and Sydney, but this combination of viaducts and tunnels could never deliver speed and the rail journey between the two cities, just a distance of eighty kilometres - often takes two hours.
The second half of the twentieth century duplicated the single lane each way Princes Highway with the F6, a divided carriageway multi lane highway linking Waterfall and a notorious descent down the escarpment called Mount Ousley. An extension from Waterfall into the heart of Sydney was planned, but never built, although a land corridor has been maintained and it is again on the drawing boards.
Several times exciting plans to link Sydney and Wollongong by high speed rail have emerged and been discarded on cost grounds. It would only be feasible to punch a long rail tunnel through the escarpment and the alignment is wrong for it to form part of a Sydney/Melbourne high speed rail link. Now completing that divided, multi lane road link from Waterfall to the city to complete the old F6 concept is again being considered.
Wollongong has expanded from the sleepy little mining village of the 1800's and this expansion on the southern side of Lake Illawarra is now the twin city of Shellharbour. There is the expectation that further growth will eventually link these two cities with the expanding city of Nowra in the Shoalhaven. Sydney is prevented from any further expansion south by the barrier of the Royal National park.
One of the decisions that will seal the fate of Wollongong and its hinterland is whether the choice is a high speed rail connection - or completion of the road link between Waterfall and the city. Both will be needed, but the time separation will be critical. A high speed rail link has the capacity to move a huge number of people very quickly and if that takes precedence Wollongong will become a dormitory city feeding Sydney's rapacious need for a workforce.
What has become noticeable is the change in road traffic. Several decades ago the commuter stream was predominantly inwards to Sydney. Today the flow of Sydney residents travelling to jobs in the Illawarra tells a different story. The price of housing once had a wide disparity, but now there is vast similarity between suburbs of comparity.
Sadly, that transport decision will be taken by people with no direct connection to this area.
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