Looking forward to the long weekend

Wollongong City Council media release: Thursday 14 April 2022

With the long weekend almost upon us, Wollongong City Council is encouraging community members to pass on the picnic blanket this weekend.

While the start of the week provided a welcome break in the rainy weather, and the weekend’s forecast is looking promising, the city’s parks and public spaces are still very, very soggy with our sports fields still off-limits to gameplay.

“This really will be the Easter long weekend to forgo the picnic in the park for another option,’’ Wollongong City Lord Mayor Councillor Gordon Bradbery AM said.

“If you try and walk on the grass anywhere in our city at the moment it is really spongy and boggy – you just wouldn’t want to try the traditional Easter long weekend picnic where you spend a lazy day on a picnic rug in the sunshine. This is the year to try something new – or to find a new favourite picnic table like the ones in the Wollongong Botanic Garden.’’

While the sun was shining this week, Council’s parks crews were out blitzing public spaces, including the city’s popular foreshore areas, where it was safe to do so ahead of the weekend. The work builds on an ongoing and intensive clean-up effort late last week and across the weekend, which involved crews from parks, maintenance, construction and beach services. The teams assessed damage to infrastructure, including roads and bridges, and cleaned debris out of culverts, off roads and off beaches. The potholes crew have repaired more than 220 priority potholes across the weekend.

“We’ve left the heavy garden machinery in storage for the moment and right now we have our teams out using whipper snippers and traditional hand mowers to cut the grass in parks and sport fields where it is safe to do so,’’ Wollongong City Council General Manager Greg Doyle said.

“You’ll notice in some public spaces they’ve been able to cut around the border or the outside of a grassed area and have left the very wet parts alone. We know this isn’t necessarily the parkland aesthetic we would like, but it does provide improved access to some areas that might be drier than others. It also provides kids a place to run, and dog owners a space to exercise their pets out of the long grass.

“There is no overnight fix for our city’s greenspaces thanks to all this rain. But I assure our community where we can our teams are out doing their best to provide safe assess to our valued public spaces.’’

Cr Bradbery said he expected this weekend will see an increase in the number of day trippers coming to the city, which will be a welcome bonus to small businesses, including cafés and restaurants.

Council is prepared for the increase in visitors and locals visiting popular areas, with additional waste services and cleaning rosters in place for amenities and popular public spaces. At this stage, our beaches will be open with lifeguards on duty on Saturday, and volunteer Surf Life Savers watching over swimmers on Sunday and public holidays. We encourage swimmers to check the conditions through Beachwatch before heading for dip, and to check Council’s website for the latest on our ocean pools. Mt Keira Summit Park, meanwhile, remains closed.

“With COVID-19 still very active in our community and further afield I anticipate people will be looking for a safe and easy way to have a mini-break this Easter and our city is perfectly positioned for that,’’ he said.

“We can anticipate that it’s likely we will see increased traffic in our northern suburbs as people drive the beautiful coast road and this will present a challenge given the condition of some of the roads in our city thanks to the recent weather.

“At the moment some key roads in the city including a section of Lawrence Hargrave Drive near Coledale, Mt Keira Road, Bulli Pass and Macquarie Pass are either closed or have changed conditions. It’s important to be across this before you start your drive and I encourage anyone thinking of driving to be sure to keep an eye on LiveTraffic.’’