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Science & Nature

Bothered by mozzies? Here’s 1000 reasons a night to love microbats

Over the summer months I’m lucky enough to have microbats visit my yard. I have no idea where they spend the day roosting - in one of the tree hollows across the road? Someone’s shed? Under shedding bark of old growth trees? - but come dusk, they...

Amanda De George
7 hours ago
video
Science & Nature

Bird of the Month: Southern Emu-wren

The bird of the month for July is the Southern Emu-wren (Stipiturus malachurus). This tiny wren species inhabits the heathlands and grasslands spanning coastlines from southeastern to southwestern Australia. Whilst this species is generally shy...

Ewan Auld
7 hours ago
video
Puzzles

Quick Quiz: 16 July 2025

The Illawarra Flame
7 hours ago
video
Clubs & Community

How Thirroul bowls club is helping Linda through heartbreak

When Linda O’Neill lost her husband Michael earlier this year, she struggled with even the simplest tasks. The two had been inseparable - her soulmate, she calls him - and when Michael died just six days before what would have been their 20th...

Tareyn Varley
July 2025
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Puzzles

Easy Sudoku, 15 July 2025

The Illawarra Flame
July 2025
video
Health & Wellness

Exercise and healthy diet the key to avoiding diabetes

“Keep moving”! That’s the simple advice on how we can try to avoid getting diabetes from a Wollongong-based expert. During National Diabetes Week (13-19 July) Diabetes Australia is highlighting the importance of prevention, to reduce adding to the...

Jeremy Lasek
July 2025
video
Clubs & Community

A Welcome Reunion

By Cristina Sacco of the Multicultural Communities Council of Illawarra (MCCI), which delivers the Welcome Experience, a free support service in the Illawarra Shoalhaven Lita and Livia grew up in the same small, tight-knit and vibrant Fijian...

Cristina Sacco
July 2025
video
Clubs & Community

Helensburgh Walks for Him, raising $5k in prostate cancer fundraiser

Friday, June 13th, 6pm. It was a dark and cold night, but not stormy. Soup bouquets swirled through the Thistles clubhouse, mixing with the nostril-twinging aroma of Goanna Oil. The under-13 girls are out on the pitch, the middle-aged blokes are...

Paul Blanksby
July 2025
video
Media release

Help Council continue to build a city that’s inclusive

For more information head to the Our Wollongong website

Wollongong City Council
July 2025
News
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Opinion

Discover history of Illawarra Peace Movement at Wollongong Library exhibition

Wollongong’s proud history of peace activism is currently being celebrated in the Peace Movement Illawarra exhibition at Wollongong City Library. The exhibition features photographs and artefacts in the main Wollongong library and an online...

Alexander Brown
July 2025
video
News

Calls for greater safety as Wollongong’s e-scooter trial extended to Jan 2026

For the second time, the NSW Government has extended Wollongong’s e-scooter trial program. It’s prompted calls from one Wollongong councillor for increased safety measures to protect riders, cyclists and pedestrians who use the shared paths. The...

Jeremy Lasek
July 2025
video
News

Banksia Bushcare solves African art mystery with AI

By Kieran Tapsell of Banksia Bushcare When the Suez Canal was being built in the 1850s, many Greeks were brought in as labourers and tradesmen. After the completion of the canal in 1869, many of them stayed in Egypt. However, after the Suez Crisis...

Kieran Tapsell
July 2025
video
Opinion

Lord Mayor’s column: Reflecting on NAIDOC Week 2025

News from the Lord Mayor’s Office, 14 July 2025 By Wollongong Lord Mayor Councillor Tania Brown Every July NAIDOC Week celebrations are held across Australia to celebrate and recognise the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres...

The Illawarra Flame
19 hours ago
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Media release

Help Council continue to build a city that’s inclusive

For more information head to the Our Wollongong website

Wollongong City Council
July 2025
video
News

Go Loopy this October on the Great Southeastern Loop

By Cartia Wollen “1,263 kilometres does sound like a long way to ride your bicycle,” agrees Ed Birt with a smile, “but do the math – riding an average of 18 kilometres an hour, you can do it in 70 hours of riding time. I’ll be giving you...

The Illawarra Flame
July 2025
video
News

Business Illawarra’s Clean Energy Roadmap to deliver ‘jobs here for our kids and our grandkids’

Community association Good for the Gong has welcomed the “exciting and hopeful vision” of the new Illawarra Clean Energy Industry Roadmap, commissioned by Business Illawarra and launched this week at the University of Wollongong.

Genevieve Swart
July 2025
Arts & Culture
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Arts & culture

Behind the Curtain with Sidedoor Theatre

Twenty years ago, the space held a business that sold risqué goods of an adult nature. Twenty years before that, it hosted a Balkans-themed club where young men complained that cans of VB cost $2.50. Now the tiny bolthole under ground level hosts...

Brian Kelly
July 2025
video
Arts & culture

From Uruguay to Barrack Heights

By Alejandra Martinez My family landed at Cabramatta Hostel in the early 1970s. We were housed in a hot one-room corrugated iron half-cylindrical hut. It was far away from all that was familiar, including the coast, which is so prominent in...

The Illawarra Flame
July 2025
video
Arts & culture

South Coast Writers Centre celebrates ‘extraordinarily successful’ festival in Thirroul

The South Coast Writers Centre hosted its most popular festival at Thirroul Community Centre last weekend, with well over 1000 tickets sold and up to 150 book lovers present at any given time. “It’s been extraordinarily successful,” said SCWC...

Genevieve Swart
July 2025
video
Exclusive

Wollongong’s Scott Radburn excited to share reunion plans for the legendary Four Kinsmen

It’s shaping up to be one of the biggest reunions in Australia’s entertainment industry, and veteran Wollongong performer Scott Radburn can’t wait. Stalwarts of the Australian live performance circuit since 1962, The Four Kinsmen, once a household...

Jeremy Lasek
July 2025
video
Arts & culture

From memoir writing to novel mapping: 6 new courses for writers at SCWC

Even though the South Coast Readers & Writers Festival has come and gone, there are still plenty of writing opportunities coming up at the South Coast Writers Centre, including SIX new writing courses and workshops for everything from romance to...

Elizabeth Heffernan
July 2025
video
Arts & culture

Yuin musicians to share songs and stories at free concert celebrating NAIDOC Week

Ahead of 2025’s NAIDOC Week celebrations, Yuin musicians Ron Callaghan and Kyarna-Rose will perform at the free Music and Tea concert at Wollongong Art Gallery tomorrow morning, July 3.

Tyneesha Williams
July 2025
Energy Transition
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News

Business Illawarra’s Clean Energy Roadmap to deliver ‘jobs here for our kids and our grandkids’

Community association Good for the Gong has welcomed the “exciting and hopeful vision” of the new Illawarra Clean Energy Industry Roadmap, commissioned by Business Illawarra and launched this week at the University of Wollongong.

Genevieve Swart
July 2025
video
News

What’s the difference between the Illawarra’s Urban REZ and Offshore Wind Zone?

In his keynote address at the Illawarra Clean Energy Industry Roadmap launch on Wednesday, Wollongong MP Paul Scully took the chance to set the record straight about the Illawarra Renewable Energy Zone, now the state’s first ‘Urban REZ’. “Some...

Genevieve Swart
July 2025
video
Energy Transition

Dr Saul Griffith urges Illawarra households to electrify these ‘five big things’

Engineer, entrepreneur and climate advocate Dr Saul Griffith says Australians have 20 years to make five upgrades that could help the country meet its climate targets.

Tyneesha Williams
July 2025
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News

An exclusive visit inside one of Australia’s most energy-efficient 10-star homes

In these days of spiralling energy prices, how a home is built can make all the difference when power bills arrive, with their growing impact on the household budget. The Illawarra Flame has been granted exclusive access to one of the nation’s most...

Jeremy Lasek
July 2025
Clubs & Community
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Clubs & Community

How Thirroul bowls club is helping Linda through heartbreak

When Linda O’Neill lost her husband Michael earlier this year, she struggled with even the simplest tasks. The two had been inseparable - her soulmate, she calls him - and when Michael died just six days before what would have been their 20th...

Tareyn Varley
July 2025
video
Clubs & Community

A Welcome Reunion

By Cristina Sacco of the Multicultural Communities Council of Illawarra (MCCI), which delivers the Welcome Experience, a free support service in the Illawarra Shoalhaven Lita and Livia grew up in the same small, tight-knit and vibrant Fijian...

Cristina Sacco
July 2025
video
Clubs & Community

Helensburgh Walks for Him, raising $5k in prostate cancer fundraiser

Friday, June 13th, 6pm. It was a dark and cold night, but not stormy. Soup bouquets swirled through the Thistles clubhouse, mixing with the nostril-twinging aroma of Goanna Oil. The under-13 girls are out on the pitch, the middle-aged blokes are...

Paul Blanksby
July 2025
video
Clubs & Community

Four inductees and the winner of the Southern Cross Award for 2025

By Ian Badham of HARS Aviation Museum Four exceptional individual candidates have been identified for induction into the Australian Aviation Hall of Fame in 2025 and one organisation has been recognised to receive of the AAHoF Southern Cross Award...

Ian Badham
July 2025
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Clubs & Community

Helensburgh charity starter takes on Mt Kilimanjaro to raise $25,000

Helensburgh local Maeve Turner is preparing to climb Mount Kilimanjaro – Africa’s highest peak – on July 20 to help raise $25,000 for Inuka, a charity she founded to support education and empowerment in rural Tanzania.

Tyneesha Williams
July 2025
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Clubs & Community

2025’s Thirroul Seaside and Arts Festival was a community triumph

By Kim Morris of Horizon Bank, the community event’s gold sponsor The last day of Autumn and the first day of Winter – a perfect time for the 33rd Thirroul Seaside & Arts Festival. Blessed with a soft breeze and brilliant sunshine, these ideal...

The Illawarra Flame
June 2025
video
Clubs & Community

New members welcome to try Helensburgh Probus Club meeting

More information ? Contact Val on 0419129984 or email helensburghprobus@y7mail. com

The Illawarra Flame
May 2025
Food & Travel
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Food & Travel

UOW professor enlists Food Warriors in gardening program for students

Thirroul’s Professor Karen Charlton is on a mission to make the food systems of the Illawarra and Shoalhaven “more sustainable, healthy and equitable” for growers and consumers.

Tyneesha Williams
May 2025
video
Food & Travel

Kiama Farmers’ Market set to move over winter

Kiama Farmers’ Market is preparing for a temporary move from its prime location at Surf Beach to allow Kiama Council to rehabilitate the damage done by tidal storm surges in early April. “The park was a mess of sand, debris and fish on the...

Cathy Law
May 2025
video
Food & Travel

Food, recipes and friendship exchanged at Unanderra Crop Swap

Monthly crop swaps across the Illawarra are connecting locals with more than free fruit and veg. Ester Neyers, who runs the Unanderra Crop Swap, says the events are a great way for people to connect with their local community.

Tyneesha Williams
May 2025
video
Food & Travel

Wine is still Australia’s most popular alcoholic drink – but many producers face an uncertain future

This trend isn’t confined to Australia; it is global. The decline reflects cost-of-living pressures, growing health concerns about alcohol, and Gen Z questioning traditional drinking norms

The Conversation
May 2025
What's On
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July
Events

Give Me Space! A School Holiday Workshop for Families Living with Asthma

Give
18
July
Events

Greenplan Plant Sale

Greenplan
18
July - 19 July
News

The Listies: 110% Ready

The
19
July
Events

Annual Camellia Show

Annual
Health & Wellness
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Health & Wellness

Exercise and healthy diet the key to avoiding diabetes

“Keep moving”! That’s the simple advice on how we can try to avoid getting diabetes from a Wollongong-based expert. During National Diabetes Week (13-19 July) Diabetes Australia is highlighting the importance of prevention, to reduce adding to the...

Jeremy Lasek
July 2025
video
Health & Wellness

Is Social Media Making Our Kids Anxious? Let’s Talk About It

By clinical psychologist Dr Marianne Bourke As a clinical psychologist, I’ve sat with numerous parents – mums and dads doing their best to raise kind, resilient kids in a rapidly changing world. Many share the same concern: “My daughter’s...

Dr Marianne Bourke
July 2025
video
Health & Wellness

For healthy people, cities and hospitals, charity prescribes prevention

Local organisation Healthy Cities Australia (formerly Healthy Cities Illawarra) takes a collaborative approach to community health, working with local government, universities, businesses and other community organisations to “bring people together...

Tyneesha Williams
July 2025
video
Opinion

What we are really teaching kids when we keep them too safe

By Simone Potter, founder of Bush Magic Adventure Therapy We live in a world where children’s lives are more protected, programmed, and padded than ever before. Helmets, knee pads, safe surfaces, safety scissors – these things have their place...

Simone Potter
July 2025
video
Partner content

How to Stay Healthy Through Cold & Flu Season

As winter approaches across the Illawarra, cold and flu season intensifies alongside the cooler weather. In 2024, Australia saw over 349,000 influenza cases, with children under five and seniors most at risk. Vaccination remains the most effective prevention, yet concerning trends show only 13.7% of children aged 5–14 were vaccinated last year—and this number continues to decline.

Dr Meaghan Miller-McConochie
July 2025
video
Partner content

Finding Steady Ground in an Uncertain World

By Clinical Psychologist Dr Marianne Bourke Life doesn’t come with a pause button. In a world where life feels more uncertain than ever, many of us are quietly carrying more than we let on. We’re often expected to keep functioning, caring...

Dr Marianne Bourke
June 2025
Local Business
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Local Business

Bodyfit Shellharbour Launches Free Community Yoga Classes to Reset & Reconnect

Spots for the free classes are limited and bookings are essential. To reserve a place, visit Bodyfit Shellharbour’s Instagram or Facebook page for the booking link

Kasey Simpson
July 2025
video
Local Business

Books talks at Ryan’s Hotel in July

News from the team at Collins Booksellers Thirroul We have three fantastic events at Ryan’s Hotel this July. Too difficult to choose? We recommend you come to all of them! On the 9th is the launch of DAYS SINCE, the latest anthology from the Young...

Collins Booksellers Thirroul
July 2025
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Partner content

An Invitation to Glow, from The Skin Confidential

If your skin isn’t looking or feeling its best lately – think dullness, dehydration, pigmentation or those first signs of fine lines – it might be time to prioritise expert-led skin care. That’s where The Skin Confidential comes in. Located...

The Illawarra Flame
June 2025
video
Local Business

Let’s talk about online meetings

By Pauline Calme Atlassian, the giant Australian-owned tech company, conducted a study last year revealing that team meetings are ineffective 72% of the time. Simply put, since I moved to the beautiful suburb of Otford with the opportunity to work...

The Illawarra Flame
May 2025
video
Local Business

Collins hosts talk by journalist Jess Hill at Coledale

At Coledale Community Centre on 10th May, Jess Hill, a journalist and the author of Quarterly Essay ‘Losing It’, will be in conversation with Regina Featherstone, a senior lawyer from the Human Rights Law Centre. Bookings essential for what will...

Collins Booksellers Thirroul
May 2025
video
Partner content

Home decor for harmony and happiness with CS Interiors

By local interior decorator Claire Cronin-Smith, owner of CS Interiors Communication is at the heart of my work. I believe that understanding my clients and their families is essential to bringing their vision to life. With a degree in...

The Illawarra Flame
April 2025
video
Local Business

Family creates streetwear brand: Meet the Helensburgh crew behind Shred Clothing

A Helensburgh-based online enterprise called Shred Clothing is a true family business. “I started Shred with my three boys,” said owner Carla Brittain, who also runs Coal Coast Shutters and Blinds with her husband, Dave. “It started out as...

Genevieve Swart
April 2025
Science & Nature
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Science & Nature

Bothered by mozzies? Here’s 1000 reasons a night to love microbats

Over the summer months I’m lucky enough to have microbats visit my yard. I have no idea where they spend the day roosting - in one of the tree hollows across the road? Someone’s shed? Under shedding bark of old growth trees? - but come dusk, they...

Amanda De George
7 hours ago
video
Science & Nature

Bird of the Month: Southern Emu-wren

The bird of the month for July is the Southern Emu-wren (Stipiturus malachurus). This tiny wren species inhabits the heathlands and grasslands spanning coastlines from southeastern to southwestern Australia. Whilst this species is generally shy...

Ewan Auld
7 hours ago
video
Science & Nature

Illawarra waterways – a spot of history

Having grandly announced a new series of articles on Illawarra waterways, I was promptly struck with an intense case of writer’s block. Or, to be honest, it was more like writer’s log-jam, with dozens of thoughts crowding in together and butting up...

Emma Rooksby
July 2025
video
Science & Nature

Volunteers have a whale of a time at ORRCA Census

ORRCA volunteers celebrated an exciting 26th annual whale Census in 2025, writes Phebe Fidge. It’s another day in paradise, and these volunteers won’t waste a minute! As the sun rises, Jody, Lyndell and Khynan from the Organisation for the...

Phebe Fidge
July 2025
Motoring & Property
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Motoring & Property

Driven: 2025 Toyota Land Cruiser Prado 250 Series

The new-generation Prado (aka the 250 Series) is larger than the previous Prado and is now able to tow the industry-standard 3500kg, rather than the 3000kg the previous generation is limited to. The new Prado, now based on the same TNG-F chassis as...

Marcus Craft
July 2025
video
Partner content

RBA Holds Rates Steady – What It Means for the Local Property Market

At its July meeting, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) opted to leave the official cash rate unchanged at 3.85%, despite broad expectations among economists and financial markets for a 0.25% cut. The decision reflects the RBA’s cautious optimism...

Ian Pepper
July 2025
video
Motoring & Property

Driven: 2025 Ford F-150 Lariat LWB 3.5L Auto

US utes are very popular in Australia and the Ford F-150 Lariat long wheelbase – the top dog in the F-150 line-up – is the latest arrival in America’s full-size pick-up invasion of our car market. 

Marcus Craft
July 2025
video
Partner content

RBA Cuts Interest Rates by 0.25%

Ian is a regular advertiser in the Illawarra Flame

Ian Pepper
May 2025
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Partner content

Whatever the election result, first home buyers will be the winners

Ian is a regular advertiser in the Illawarra Flame

Ian Pepper
April 2025
video
Motoring & Property

Diary of an EV Driver: Charging Away Simplified

Part 12 in Peter Aubourg’s column, Diary of an EV Driver It turns out that it is quite a social affair at the charging stations, with people sharing their experiences, and generally helping each other. On the subject of planning the trip, another...

Peter Aubourg
March 2025
video
Partner content

Why Didn’t the RBA Cut Interest Rates?

Local real estate agent and finance professional Ian Pepper looks at the Reserve Bank of Australia’s decision to keep interest rates on hold at 4.1 per cent after the board’s April 1 meeting. Inflation is Back in Target – So What’s the Problem?...

Ian Pepper
April 2025
Sport & Leisure
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Sport & Leisure

Power carves at Coledale corner

The waves of the past few weeks continued but in a southerly direction, making Coledale corner the place to be for our 5th pointscore on Sunday, May 18. Some brisk winds from the south kicked up throughout the day but the waves held up and increased...

Ian Pepper
June 2025
video
Sport & Leisure

Helensburgh Tennis Club needs you

By Harley Mangham Helensburgh Tennis Club (HTC) has recently upgraded the court lights and the surfaces – we invite you to come and enjoy a game of tennis. HTC would like to thank Wollongong City Council, Wollongong Tennis Courts Administration...

The Illawarra Flame
June 2025
video
Sport & Leisure

60 Years of Mateship: Coledale Oysters celebrate winter swimming milestone

“Many of my fellow swimmers have been competing for far longer than me, and some have such lovely strokes and style that is amazing to watch,” Denis says. “But in meeting each week it does not seem to matter. “We all get in and swim. It does not appear to matter what style you exhibit or your speed.

Tyneesha Williams
June 2025
video
Sport & Leisure

Another championship for Wollongong!

The Illawarra Hawks may have won the NBL25 championship, but another local team has flown under the radar to win a prestigious AFL title… Local Ben Shum saw an expression of interest for teams to register for an AFL Masters Carnival at...

Tony Ryan
May 2025
Videos
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Videos

On the road with NINA

Ahead of National Volunteer Week (16 to 22 May 2022), Iris Huizinga joins a Northern Illawarra Neighbour Aid bus trip to the Imperial at Clifton. Visit the NINA office at 18 Walker Street, call 4294 1900 or follow @northernillawarraneighbouraid on...

Iris Huizinga
video
Videos

How John Stubbs put patients at the heart of healthcare

A Thirroul resident and now Member of the Order of Australia, 74-year-old John Stubbs is on a mission to put patients at the centre of healthcare treatment. Watch the interview

Iris Huizinga
video
Videos

Lifesaver teaches refugees to swim

When former Scarborough-Wombarra lifesaver Peter Rafferty volunteered as a driving instructor for refugees in Wollongong, he discovered most of his students couldn’t swim. So he decided to do something about it. Peter, who worked with asylum...

Iris Huizinga
video
Videos

Rise in demand for Need a Feed

“Right now, we can’t meet the demand, we have had to knock people back,“ says Need a Feed CEO and founder Shaz Harrison. ”There was one organisation that wanted 70 food packages, we could only give 25.”

Iris Huizinga
Puzzles
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Puzzles

Quick Quiz: 16 July 2025

The Illawarra Flame
7 hours ago
video
Puzzles

Easy Sudoku, 15 July 2025

The Illawarra Flame
July 2025
video
Puzzles

9-Letter Challenge, 14 July 2025

The Illawarra Flame
July 2025
video
Puzzles

Quick Crossword, 11 July 2025

The Illawarra Flame
July 2025
video
Puzzles

Play WordroW - 10 July 2025

The Illawarra Flame
July 2025
video
Puzzles

Quick Quiz: 9 July 2025

The Illawarra Flame
July 2025
video
Puzzles

Easy Sudoku, 8 July 2025

The Illawarra Flame
July 2025
Digital editions
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July 2025

July’s print mag is out now

The Illawarra Flame
June 2025

Winter 2025

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May 2025

June 2025

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