User Profile

Genevieve Swart

Genevieve Swart is a journalist who has spent 30 years at newspapers, magazines and websites in London, Cape Town and Sydney. For the past decade, she has run a community news business, which rebranded in 2022 to become The Illawarra Flame, a name inspired by a tree. Genevieve is a co-director of True Story festival and a founding member of the Local & Independent News Association. On days off, she goes kayaking.

Clubs & Community

Meet the choir starter

Elliot Peck hit the right note when he started the new Slapdash community choir last year, with 80 people signing up for six weeks of classes in the Excelsior Hall at Thirroul Library. “I was blown away by how many people turned out to have...

Genevieve Swart

January 2025

News

Get a load of this: Soft plastics drop-offs coming to Wollongong after Christmas

It’s been two years since the collapse of the REDcycle supermarket scheme for recycling soft plastics. But the volunteers at Circular Plastics Illawarra are ending the year on a happy note – the soft sound of scrunching plastics at special...

Genevieve Swart

December 2024

News

Bushwalk reopens: First look at Wodi Wodi Track

Where once bushwalkers had to scramble or slide, there are now beautiful sandstone stairs. Welcome to the new and improved Wodi Wodi Track. After being closed for repairs for a year and a half, the track reopened today, December 20. It’s another...

Genevieve Swart

December 2024

News

Speaking to power

The University of Wollongong’s Ty Christopher has a cost-cutting clean energy message he says we should be “screaming from the rooftops”. It’s been lost as election-bound politicians debate our electricity mix decades into the future and the...

Genevieve Swart

December 2024

News

Stanwell Park’s Banksia Bushcare wins award for fostering community spirit

After a lifetime of Bushcare work at Stanwell Park and lots of local love, Kieran Tapsell has received his first official award.

Genevieve Swart

December 2024

News

From volunteer to pilot manager: John Buchelin shares an electrifying journey

John Buchelin started out as an Electrify 2515 volunteer, letterboxing flyers on local streets with his daughter after soccer practice. Two years on, he’s the operations manager for the new community pilot, a partnership by non-profit Rewiring...

Genevieve Swart

December 2024

News

Dear Santa: All the Otford kids want for Christmas is a playground

Santa may find some special requests in his mailbox at Helensburgh Library, as the children of Otford share Christmas wishes for a playground of their own.

Genevieve Swart

December 2024

News

City celebrates rise of Green Gravity in Wollongong

Elon Musk’s Tesla home batteries beware – there’s a new, cheaper and more sustainable way of storing rooftop solar on the rise, and it’s made in Wollongong. “At Green Gravity, we are an energy storage developer and we’ve developed...

Genevieve Swart

December 2024

Arts & culture

Wobble at Artspace: How cancer triggered the creative within

Tonight Bellambi dad Tim Donnelly will be celebrating the triumph of art over adversity, as he ends a year battling bladder and throat cancer with his first exhibition. Wobble – a collection of fantastical fish, jellies and other sea creatures –...

Genevieve Swart

December 2024

What's On

Get ready to Jingle Bell Rock: Con to lead free Carols at MacCabe Park

Get ready to ‘Jingle Bell Rock’ on Thursday, December 12, when bands, singers and circus acts will come dancin’ and prancin’ into the first Carols in MacCabe Park led by the Wollongong Conservatorium of Music. “Be ready to sing along,“ said...

Genevieve Swart

December 2024

Local Business

Q&A with the Glow Girls founder

First Helensburgh local Sammy Mahler changed her own life, now she’s changing others’. “After many years in fashion, where I honed my skills in creativity and communication, I realised my true calling lay in supporting young people,” Sammy...

Genevieve Swart

November 2024

Local Business

ITeC Academy to host new free Business Connections Club

Networking events are making a comeback as local business people show they value the chance to connect with others. On Thursday, November 14, the revival of the Northern Illawarra Chamber of Commerce (NICC) had a promising start, with Wollongong...

Genevieve Swart

November 2024

Arts & culture

Merrigong Season 2025: From Love Stories to Strangeways

Want a gift to bring joy to your world? Merrigong Theatre Company recently announced its biggest ever season for 2025 and artistic director Simon Hinton has a hot tip for Christmas shoppers: Love Stories. “A season ticket makes a really great...

Genevieve Swart

November 2024

News

New rock stars: Electrification gig plays to packed house at Anita’s

Sunday afternoon’s home electrification session at Anita’s Theatre was a hit, enjoying a turnout rock stars would envy at Thirroul’s live music venue. About 600 people attended yesterday’s launch of the Electrify 2515 Community Pilot, a two-year...

Genevieve Swart

November 2024