Wollongong is a city south of Sydney nestled between the Illawarra escarpment (part of the Great Dividing Range) and the Tasman Sea (part of the Pacific Ocean). With surf beaches and coastal rock pools the entire way along the coast, plus trails and lookouts through the mountains you will always find something to do in the great outdoors. I try to capture that essence in my photos displayed here
An incredible sunrise overlooking the Continental Pools, Wollongong Harbour and the two lighthouses (the only place on the east coast of Australia with two lighthouses in close proximity to each other). The pools were officially opened in 1926 as a place where men, women and children could all swim together
The lifeguard tower on Corrimal beach during a stormy sunrise one morning. Sunrise light giving the sky an eerie orange glow as rain falls in the background under some dark stormy skies
This image shows a surfer stretching at sunset, with golden sunlight shining through the salt spray from the ocean it caught my attention as an incredibly atmospheric scene, someone is also sitting on the rocks above the surfer, unwinding as the sun goes down.
This image was taken from the western breakwall as the sun lit the clouds on a stunning sunrise. It features the older of the two lighthouses found on the coast at Wollongong Harbour. It was built in 1871, decommissioned and restored in 1974 and officially heritage listed as a local government heritage building in 2000 before being fully restored to working order in 2002.
The northern suburbs of Wollongong are often referred to as the coal coast due to the discovery of coal deposits in the mountain range that runs in close proximity along the shoreline. It’s an incredible part of the world and we are very lucky to have such a diverse little collection of mountain side villages so close.
Some nice pastel colours spreading across the sky in this pre-sunrise image shot at Austinmer from the rockshelf below Headlands Hotel. The hotel started life in the mid 1920s as a guesthouse, in 1954 it was converted into a modern hotel with bars and new accommodation facilities, it was taken over in the 1970s and renovated once more before having to close in 2011 for safety reasons over the poor state of the building. The site was purchased in 2013 and a new venue was built which opened in 2016 and continues to operate today
Early one morning at Coalcliff a nice gradient of colours came across the sky below the scattered clouds. I got as close to the water in the pool as I could to give the nice out of focus colour contrast complimenting the sky, broken up with a silhoutte of the mountains in the background. The pool was first built in the 1920s and is one of the smaller pools along the coast at only 27m in length, it makes up for this by being one of the most picturesque surrounded by the cliffs of the Northern Illawarra Escarpment
This one is another one taken at Austinmer, this morning was the perfect tide and swell for shooting some nice flow between the rocks while waves broke on the edge of the rockshelf. The rising sun gave a beautiful glow and a hint of colour across the low clouds just above the horizon. The name Austinmere was first used when the mine opened in 1887 as a nod to one of the directors of the Illawarra Mining Company, Harry Austin. In 1895 the current spelling minus the last ‘e’ was officially adopted.
the Illawarra region comprises of Wollongong, Shellharbour and Kiama. Southern Illawarra takes in Shellharbour, which is the region between Lake Illawarra and Macquarie Rivulet in the north and the Minnamurra River in the south and the Illawarra Escarpment in the west. Also Kiama which starts at the Minnamurra River and goes south to the Crooked River and west to the Illawarra Escarpment
A nice long exposure of Kiama Ocean Pool with someones bright red thongs left carefully next to the ramp complimenting the colour seen in the clouds from this stunning sunrise. While this might not be the original pool there has been a pool situated at this point since 1877
A lifeguard tower sits overlooking Windang Island which has beams of sunlight shining down through a moody sky. Windang Island is situated on the southern side of the entrance to Lake Illawarra, the local indigenous people have a deep connection to this island, using it as a place for fishing, gathering resources, and performing ceremonies for thousands of years.
Cathedral Rocks sit at the southern end of Jones Beach in Kiama. Consisting of volcanic basalt rock, they have been eroded over millions of years leaving these great sea stacks which have become a favourite of photographers and tourists alike
A collection of images from my travels within Australia, you will find more information about each location in the image descriptions
I visited Bribbaree, a small village of 140ish people, almost 40km west of Young and 400km south of Sydney, for a charity event raising money for Cystic Fibrosis. When I awoke early on a particularly cold, clear morning, after spending the night at the showgrounds, I decided to go out and walk around with the camera and see what I could find. What I found were frosty fingers and toes, but also this nice little scene of a horse jump nestled between two trees. With some nice colours across the sky I think it is a perfect country NSW scene
The blue pool at Bermagui is stunningly located at the bottom of a cliff right on the oceans edge, originally a little natural rock pool which would lose the water on low tide. In 1937 money was raised by the community and one particular local philanthropist Bill Dickinson, to blow out an area of rock and place concrete walls to transform it into the pool we see today
During a road trip down to the Victorian coast I stopped at Wangaratta for a couple of nights, during one of the nights I woke up stupidly early so decided to go exploring the local area. I had read about the Winton Wetlands, although I was there during the summer of 2019 (the year we had massive bushfires right across the east coast of Australia) so it was in the midst of a major drought. I found that the kangaroos didn’t seem to mind the drought, they grazed the grassland as the sun rose. I found this mum and joey just poking their heads out to get a look at me and thought it made for a really nice environmental portrait
