The NSW Minerals Council’s latest annual Member Expenditure Survey has found that in the last financial year 28 participating NSW mining companies supported thousands of mining jobs and maintained high levels of direct spending in the Hunter during the Covid-19 pandemic, boosting the region’s economy at a time when it was most needed.

Williamtown RAAF base sits at the heart of the region’s defence sector and is supported by a hub of important defence and aerospace companies. It is co-located with the Newcastle Airport, currently servicing 1.2 million passengers annually.

Sport is part of the cultural identity of many Australians. Sport isn’t just a favoured pastime for Australians. It is a significant contributor to the Australian economy.

In Australia, sports and recreational organisations attract more volunteers than any other type of organisation.

Major sporting events – grand finals, international cricket, grand slam tournaments, surfing competitions and cycling challenges – as well as less watched events – weekend matches, morning and afternoon training sessions and amateur competitions – fill calendars and recreational time.

The Hunter Valley is the birthplace of Australian wines. Known for its exquisite varieties of semillon and shiraz, it's renowned worldwide as a gourmet getaway. There are over 150 cellar doors and a growing number of innovative restaurants offering opportunities for indulgence across every pocket of the region. Its strong history of farming lends itself to incredible paddock to plate and biodynamic experiences, adding that extra satisfaction to your gourmet delights. Around your sampling, soak up the region’s natural wonders, unwind at one of the many day spas or sing your heart out with music between the vines.

City of Newcastle adopted Our Sustainable Waste Strategy on 22 November 2022. The Strategy sets a vision for reducing waste, increasing recycling rates, strengthening the economy and creating new jobs within Newcastle over the next 20 years.

Continued transformation in local manufacturing will influence the ability to generate or maintain jobs. The Illawarra region has expertise and capabilities in a number of specific sub-areas combined with UOW’s research base in advanced materials and technologies.

The Illawarra region has strong supply-chain linkages through the advanced manufacturing sector, as a result of its 90-year history in heavy manufacturing. Wollongong’s advanced manufacturing sector is fast changing and diversifying, with significant operations in industrial, chemicals, mining, defence, construction, textiles and food and beverage, as well as exploring opportunities in emerging fields such as renewable energy.

Projections for climate change in the Illawarra Shoalhaven Region include higher temperatures, higher evaporation rates, changes to the distribution and intensity of rainfall, severe and more frequent heatwaves resulting in more severe bushfire weather and a longer bushfire season.

These risks will have impacts for agricultural activities in the region, where producers will need to invest in methods and infrastructure to mitigate high temperatures and conserve water.

The Illawarra region has a strong focus on creative industries.

Wollongong City Council is committed to fostering growth in creative industries. The Council recognises that creative occupations, some of which also fall into the professional, scientific and technical services sector, play a key role in the broader vibrancy of Wollongong and underpin the great liveability residents enjoy.

Wollongong has a very passionate and active creative community. During the development of Creative Wollongong many people working in these types of jobs expressed concern about having to move out of the area to chase opportunities.

Known for its 100 beautiful beaches, abundant wildlife, and boutique food and wine scene, the Shoalhaven is one of the top-visited destinations in Australia, but cultural tourists are in for a treat with the re-imagining of Arthur Boyd’s Bundanon. Arthur Boyd chose the Shoalhaven as his place to live and make work, and his legacy lives on with the new fantastic Bundanon, his gift to the people.

Australia’s only regional art museum accompanied by seven delightful art and culture trails, all within 2 hours from Sydney and Canberra.

Sectors such as health, education, aged care, retail and hospitality will remain important employers in the Illawarra regions of Wollongong, and continue to make a critical contribution to the economy.

There is a particular focus on the knowledge economy.
• ICT/Tech
• Financial and Insurance Services
• Professional, Scientific and Technical Services • Public Administration and Safety
• Electricity, Gas, Water and Waste Services

Additional sectors targeted by Advantage Wollongong, and also this Strategy, include:
• Advanced Manufacturing
• Defence
• Medical Science and Technology
• Scale-ups

UOW has a strong research focus, with over 270 academic and research collaborations worldwide. The UOW Innovation Campus is a dedicated technology precinct where organisations can co-locate with leading research institutions and access an ecosystem to create connections, build networks and fast track their growth. UOW has an impressive track record in collaborating with industry to drive new products and processes, giving local companies a competitive edge internationally.

Established in 2011 by UOW, the SMART Infrastructure Facility brings together experts from fields such as transport, water, energy, economics, modelling and simulation and provides a state-of-the-art facility to support this important research.
The dedicated team of researchers tackle infrastructure issues from an integrated and multi-disciplinary perspective, with a focus on how infrastructure and social behaviour intersect to ensure more liveable cities and regions.

An international leader in applied infrastructure research, the SMART Infrastructure Facility
is helping to address the challenges of infrastructure planning and management both now and into the future.

An emerging area of entrepreneurship in Wollongong is the growing start-up community, which often involves tech-based businesses. One way this has been encouraged is through programs such as iAccelerate. There has also been a less structured formation of new tech-based businesses that are choosing to locate in Wollongong, develop their ideas and solutions and then export them to the world.

Wollongong is already home to several successful ICT based companies that have an established presence in national and international markets and UOW is obviously a recognised producer of IT talent. ICT companies located in Wollongong include NEC, Accelo, iTree, Easy Agile and Internetrix.

The talent pool of graduates represents an ongoing source of future employees for the tech sector. For example, in 2016 more than half (57%) of young graduates in this field who were living in Wollongong in 2011 were working elsewhere by 2016 as they left Wollongong to gain employment elsewhere.

The dairy industry is moving towards a more intensive system of production, with efficiencies in establishing ‘dairy pads’ as well as the more traditional fodder-based dairies.

In the region, beef farming is undertaken on a smaller scale that other regions across NSW due to the smaller size of properties. It operates as part of a mixed farming system with cropping or hay production, enabling feed to be stored on farm for drier periods or sold. The nursery industry relies on many of the similar secondary industries as the other agricultural industries in the region.

Wheat, oats and maize grown in the Shoalhaven provide feed for dairy cattle in the region. Lucerne, pasture and cereal hay grown in the Shoalhaven provide feed for cattle and Lucerne hay for the equine industry.

Wollongong and the Illawarra were recognised as an industrial hub for steel and coal production and exports, but increasingly the region is becoming a tourism, education and innovation hotspot.

The Illawarra Health and Medical Research Institute (IHMRI) is based in Wollongong, a regional city approximately 90 km south of Sydney. While the work of our researchers targets the main illness and disease concerns in our region, the outcomes and results from our research reach beyond Australian borders to a global audience.

Wollongong’s growing medical science and technology sector is supported by a network of service partners including leading researchers and education providers linked to UOW, and private and public health practitioners.

UOW continues to produce excellent health graduates in fields including medicine, nursing, medical and exercise science, nutrition and dietetics and Indigenous health.

Advantage Wollongong will be targeting organisations who provide support services and innovative products/ technology. Advantage Wollongong will also target allied and mental health companies that have a strong focus on R&D and innovation in treatment.

Is Australia’s housing crisis self-inflicted? If so, then we need a series of reforms to reverse it
The best long-term solution to the structural problems of the rental crisis is to build more public and/or affordable housing.

Make renting more Sustainable. Increase rent assistance or look at rental caps, similar to countries in Europe and some US states, long term tenancy agreements with incentives for all parties to the agreement.

Build to Rent
The Build to Rent property sector is growing in Australia – this new class of housing is focused on providing high quality purpose designed and built rental stock, creating an additional housing choice for Australian renters with greater security and service.

Build to Rent developments are typically owned by institutional investors for the long term and the owner could be the developer/ongoing building manager. The format provides tenants with the flexibility of renting with the security of home ownership.

Build-to-Rent developments are usually large-scale residential properties specifically designed, built and managed for long-term ownership and rental.

Social Housing
In the 40 years between 1981 and 2021 the percentage of all Australian households living in social housing (i.e. state owned and managed public housing or community managed housing) has ranged from 4.9 per cent in 1981 to 3.8 per cent in 2021. Such a drop in the proportion of social housing raises the question of has Australia achieved the balance right, and also just what is the right level of social housing for Australia?

In 2018 Statistics Canada said 628,700 Canadian households, more than one in ten renter households nationally (13.5% of 4,652,500), were living in social and affordable housing.
In New Zealand, as of 30 June 2021, there were 74,337 public housing households. This equates to 4.0% of households living in social housing.

In England (in 2018) 17% of households (3.9 million) lived in social housing, while the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development publishes that 1.2 million households live in public housing, which is 0.98 per cent of all housing.

The Illawarra region contains unique features that make it an ideal location for a Renewable Energy Zone. The region already hosts major energy, port and transport infrastructure, has a skilled workforce, has the potential to harness significant offshore wind generation and has strong demand for future hydrogen projects, including for future green steel production.

The Illawarra has a well-developed ecosystem of organisations involved with defence related procurement activities including a range of manufacturing services as well as research activities.

Wollongong and Shoalhaven companies offer a wide-range of products and services with growing opportunities to service the defence industries. These include:
• Military-grade communications systems
• Armoured steel plate
• High-end welding and engineering
• Engineered plastics and polyurethane
• Electrical isolators and enclosures
• Specialist protective coatings
• Base safety systems
• Ruggedised medical computing devices
• Specialist labour services

The armoured steel for the Collins-class submarines, Adelaide-class frigates and the Hobart-class Air Warfare Destroyers (AWD) projects was manufactured in Wollongong. Leading defence research and development organisations in Wollongong include:
• Defence Materials Technology Centre (DMTC)
• The SMART Infrastructure Facility
• The Steel Research Hub
• The Centre for Computer and Information
Security Research

The Illawarra is overlooked from the spectacular lookouts at the top of the Eastern Escarpment as you approach Wollongong, driving south from Sydney. It is this juxtaposition of mountain and beach that gives the whole south coast region its special character and nowhere is this environment better illustrated than here in the Illawarra, where the escarpment actually meets the sea.

A circular economy is one that exchanges the typical cycle of make, use, dispose in favour of maximising re-use and recycling. The longer materials and resources are in use, the more value is extracted from them. The circular economy concept is best, and most often, applied in relation to resource consumption and regeneration.

Across the region, rainfall is projected to increase in autumn and spring by 2030. Winter rainfall is projected to decrease by 2030 across the region. Seasonal shifts in rainfall can impact agricultural productivity as well as natural ecosystems.

The number of cold nights is projected to decrease with climate change. However, dry winter and spring seasons result in more cold nights across the region.

The number of hot days is projected to increase by another three days by 2030 and seven by 2070; with increases most pronounced in spring and summer. Minimum temperatures are projected to increase across the region with the least increase away from the coast.
Prolonged periods of hot days increase the incidence of illness and death amongst vulnerable people and adversely affect ecosystems.

Just 2 hours north of Sydney is the start of the Mid North Coast where you will discover a venue to suit your needs whether it’s classical or contemporary music, theatre, dance or other performance arts. Extending as far north as Coffs Harbour the Mid North Coast is one of the fastest growing regions in Australia with over 325,000 people to be entertained.

Creative Industries is a sector that harnesses a range of creative and business skills for commercial production and dissemination. Creative industries include film and television production, broadcasting, electronic games, architecture, design and fashion, publishing, media and advertising.

It is widely recognised that arts and culture make a powerful contribution to the overall health of individuals and community wellbeing. Arts, cultural and learning environments provide many contexts for lifelong learning beyond traditional schooling.

Research shows that engagement in creative activities, art practices and education activities outside of traditional education settings (in places such as public libraries, museums and galleries) can help build soft skills, self-esteem and confidence, helping to re-engage young people who have dropped out of school.

The Bunker Cartoon Gallery (a building leased and subsidised by Council) is Australia's only dedicated cartoon gallery managed by a community organisation Bunker Cartoon Gallery Inc. (BCGI). It houses the largest private collection of original cartoons nationally.