User Profile

Jeremy Lasek

Jeremy Lasek has many decades of experience in media, marketing, events and PR. His career began in the Illawarra with the Lake Times, ABC Radio and WIN-TV. For eight years Jeremy was news director for WIN in Canberra and was national news director before joining the National Capital Authority as head of media and events. Jeremy was executive director of ACT Government Communications, Events, Arts, Heritage and Protocol for many years, was Chief of Staff to the ACT Chief Minister and had responsibility for the Centenary of Canberra celebrations in 2013. Before returning to Wollongong, Jeremy was CEO of the National Australia Day Council (including the Australian of the Year Awards) and head of communications for the Australian Federal Police. Jeremy is a member of the Friends of Woolyungah Indigenous Centre at UOW and a regular contributor to the Illawarra Flame.

News

Shellharbour Mayor steps up to support iconic escarpment walking track

A bold plan, dating back more than 50 years, to create an epic world-class walking track along the Illawarra escarpment has a new champion in Shellharbour Mayor, Chris Homer. The proposal, first raised in the early 1970s by the South Coast...

Jeremy Lasek

January 2025

News

After decades waiting, new hope for a cafe/visitors centre at Wollongong Botanic Garden

A campaign running more than four decades that would see a permanent cafe built in Wollongong’s Botanic Garden appears to be edging closer to reality. This story dates back to the 1970s and the Illawarra Flame thanks members of the Friends of...

Jeremy Lasek

January 2025

News

Youth vote will be crucial in the upcoming election: Maddy Yerbury

As speculation continues about exactly when Australia will go to the polls in the 2025 federal election, young voters are uniting to demand their concerns are heard as the political parties and would be politicians pitch for our votes. One such...

Jeremy Lasek

January 2025

News

UOW fire expert says destructive LA fires reinforce we now face a Global Fire Crisis and Australia could be next

While recent rains in the Illawarra may have reduced any immediate bushfire risk this summer, experts from the University of Wollongong (UOW) say the devastating wildfires in California demonstrate there is no cause for complacency, especially as...

Jeremy Lasek

January 2025

Exclusive

Former Kiama mayor reenergises vision for iconic escarpment walk to rival anything in the world

“Our vision is to create a spectacular, iconic walking track which would rival any other in Australia.” It’s now more than 50 years since former Kiama mayor and prominent community volunteer Neville Fredericks first heard of the vision for...

Jeremy Lasek

January 2025

News

WIN News legends reunite and share memories of a special time in local television history

Four decades ago, they were Wollongong and the Illawarra’s top A-listers. Over the summer break, former WIN-TV (Channel 4) news anchors, Michael McRae and Susie Elelman reunited at a television reunion with former colleagues. In the late 70s and...

Jeremy Lasek

January 2025

News

Thank you Illawarra for supporting the Torres Strait’s Ride Revolution

In November the Illawarra Flame shared the story of a remarkable Port Kembla mum who had started a ‘Ride Revolution’ on the Torres Strait Islands where her husband is working. A keen cyclist herself, mother-of-two Sarah Tedder began a fundraiser to...

Jeremy Lasek

January 2025

News

Living Connected offers a life-changing service for seniors lost in the digital fog

Ok, all you baby boomers reading this, trying to pretend (as I do occasionally) that we’re so up to date with rapidly changing technology. I could only wish!! Did you know there’s a fabulous service available in the Illawarra (much of it free) which...

Jeremy Lasek

December 2024

News

Support growing for world-class Illawarra regional museum

Momentum is building for ambitious plans to create a world class regional museum and cultural centre in the Illawarra. The Illawarra Flame has revealed exclusively two concept proposals; one to be located on surplus steelworks land at Port Kembl...

Jeremy Lasek

December 2024

Opinion

Yours and Owls’ mega foreshore event: why our Council is caught between a rock (’n’ roll) and a hard place

Can I start this piece by being totally up front – you won’t find a bigger lover of noisy, outdoor live music events than me (so put another coin in the jukebox baby). Over the past 25 years, I’ve had the privilege of playing a lead role (together...

Jeremy Lasek

December 2024

News

TAFE courses help prepare us for the Christmas party food and wine frenzy

Every December the Illawarra’s restaurants, pubs, bars, and function spaces are booked solid as we eat and drink our way towards Christmas and New Years Eve. It’s that time of year again. School formals, work Christmas parties, long lunches and...

Jeremy Lasek

December 2024

News

Expert hopes abandoned rail project will get back on track with support of new Lord Mayor

“I’ve spent half my lifetime working on this project.“ Local rail expert Dr Philip Laird wrote his first submission in support of the Maldon to Dombarton rail link way back in 1983. Decades later, he’s more hopeful than ever that the on again-off...

Jeremy Lasek

December 2024

News

Community forum seeks a green, safe, flood-free city for our future

Submissions have now closed for the community to provide input into one of the most important strategic documents to guide Wollongong’s future for the next decade. Wollongong City Council reviews its Community Strategic Plan – ‘a shared community...

Jeremy Lasek

December 2024

Sport & Leisure

‘Exercise is medicine’ - UOW’s Fitness for Life gym group celebrate another big year

Three times a week a group of local baby boomers get together at the UOW Innovation Campus gym to increase their levels of fitness. Over the years it’s also resulted in the creation of a strong, caring social network. Gym manager Kim Faulkner...

Jeremy Lasek

December 2024