Jump to content
SAU Community

Recommended Posts

i live here in GONG and yes it is more quieter than sydney and alot safer too....mmmnn about rent yes and no...

Safer all depends on where you live.

Considering in our tiny lol community we have 2 of the 12 most dangerous nightclubs in the state... We have a pretty badncrime rate in a fair few areas...

  • 3 weeks later...

awesome place to live.

i love the mountains surrounding wollongong which make for some fun driving.

however there are some pretty putrid people(bogans) in the mall which is never pleasant.

all up though, the goods out weigh the bads.

  • 2 months later...

Older thread, but hey! All the points above are pretty much spot on! I've been on the hunt for the last month looking for rentals down there prior to moving back in a couple of weeks. I'm looking at spending $310 a week on a 2bed/2bathroom in fairy meadow, but in the end it's either pay more for being reasonably central and having a newer place that's a lot more secured than a lot of the places close to the CBD.

I considered Shellharbour and in particular its surrounding suburbs like Albion Park, but the savings on rent balance out in the form of additional travel costs. Shellharbour is a really nice place to live and it is indeed pretty much its own city.

Wollongong has a lot of diversity in the type of people that live there both for better and worse.. or stereotypically speaking, it has its share of bogans and junkies and people who generally ruin it for others. Fortunately to an extent a lot of it is based on areas so its somewhat easy to avoid and ignore.

One trend I have noticed though is that if you are looking to buy a place, Wollongong's housing market has dropped somewhat. The rent on the other hand isn't cheap if you want something decent. If you want parking, prepare to pay more again. Plenty of <$300 places if you don't need a place to park. Secure parking (ie. something that isn't as simple as walking up to your car from the footpath) will put the costs up a bit more again.

To give a comparison though of rent vs buy, the apartment I'm looking at renting for $310 a week is in a complex of many which sell between $229k for a 1bedroom, and from $260 odd to $290k for the 2 bedroom. So it's not too bad if you're in the market to buy a place. Even places in Cordeaux Heights can be had for quite reasonable money than what it was a number of years ago. I am comparing of course to the market up here in Brisbane where $300 a week in the suburb of Mt Gravatt which is nice and close to everything like Wollongong and not too far from the city, will fetch you more-or-less a dump! No exaggeration.

If you want to compare costs of living by State, I'm currently sharing with my partner in Alexandra Hills, it's $295 a week, it's comparable to what you would spend $250 a week in Wollongong, both in the place and the neighbourhood of this street; I travel 40 minutes to work and back every day, the CBD is around 35-40mins on a good day with little traffic, and if you want to catch public transport, you can easily spend $50 per working week on bus fares with the way it's gone up in recent times! At least in Wollongong, even if you spend around $300 pw on rent, you have free shuttle bus service if you're within that vicinity of the CBD.

Where Wollongong is bad though is cost of insuring a Skyline (completely relevant in this thread). I'm preparing to spend an additional $40 per month with JustCar on top of my currently $110 p/month on pay-by-the-month terms with a rating 2. Excess will go up too. I'm 24.

Another great thing about Wollongong, almost everything you need to get to is generally a short drive. CBD, Tafe, Uni, Shopping Centres, Beaches, Restaurants, Cafes.. they're all nice and close if you're living closer to the CBD. Say Wollongong, Gwynville, Figtree, Fairy Meadow, Corrimal to give an idea. My partner doesn't drive, my work is in Port Kembla, so it's great to have free transport for her locally which is straight away going to save $50 a week in our budget.

What sucks if you drive, parking meters! And from what I hear, the parking inspectors in Wollongong aren't very lenient by any stretch of the imagination! But if you live close enough to a shuttle bus stop and don't absolutely need the car, it's not a huge deal to catch transport to and from the CBD, or save the trip till the weekend and get the free parking at Crown St Mall. If you're planning on going to Wollongong Uni then the free bus is going to save a lot in both travel and uni parking also!

In summary though, Wollongong is a place that people either love or hate, or both. Like any place really.

Anywho, that's my two cents worth, bit all over the place, but you get the idea :)

It's a nothing commute to nasho, mac pass, sea cliff bridge and fairly close to MDTC and Sutton road / sdma (dutton rally stage and hillclimb) also Huntley hillclimb.

Yes the southerners are spoiled for car places.

I know ill get flamed but basing your lifestyle decisions on the locality of a racetrack to your house just doesn't sound right. Unless its your job or your close to retirement and cars are your life other than that it sounds a big boganish, if thats a word...

I know ill get flamed but basing your lifestyle decisions on the locality of a racetrack to your house just doesn't sound right. Unless its your job or your close to retirement and cars are your life other than that it sounds a big boganish, if thats a word...

Fair call; if that's the only factor then it is a bit meh. But when it comes down to a few places offer similar lifestyles, similar jobs, pay, living conditions etc, and then there's tracks closer, it becomes a bit of a +5 to that idea.

Totally agree though, other things come first :happy:

Allergy-wise, the grasslands of Albury are so much worse than living near the sea (where you have the land breeze/sea breeze rotations).

Pollens once landing on the water go nowhere.

Chemists in places like Thirroul & Corrimal sell many less puffer sprays than inland.

Chemists in places like Thirroul & Corrimal sell many less puffer sprays than inland.

LOL

Gong FTW, agree tho there are some bogans and the driveways are shit. just ripped my f*** bar off again :@ (maybe thats just mine) plenty to do here tho not much of a car scene anymore thanks to 5.0 busting everyones balls on regular occassions!! Other than that the people are easying going and friendly and everyone will have a chat with you no matter what

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now


  • Similar Content

  • Latest Posts

    • The car/ECU will have all the sensor that it needs and expect to have. I think i do not have to explain to you how the Link is way better specialy if you have swapped engine   I just do not want to deal with any "problems" cuz i have only Nistune which i learned is not that great and in my case cant even deal with that speed problem (Link can) And of course it will be way more easier to tune and diagnose and safe. And for the ECU/speed problem...i dont know.
    • Per Mark Roberts of Sonictune: Mark Robert Author At this time, no. No ETA either 2016-17 models. You will be able to purchase and install a 2018.5+ TCU though   TCU purchasing and pricing info! As we near the release of TCU tuning, I am going to answer some questions I get asked often.   What do I need for TCU tuning? At this time, you will need a 2018.5+ TCU to be able to tune. If you have a 2016-to early 2018, you will need to replace your TCU with the newer version. One good way to know if your TCU is good is if you have auto upshift in manual mode in 1st gear around 6500 rpms. If your manual 1st gear goes to 7k rpm and will hit the rev limiter unless you shift, you have the older TCU.   Why do I need to buy another ecu license/phone flash if I already have it on my ECU tune? The TCU is its own computer module. It is completely separate from the ECU. Because of this, you will be required to purchase a TCU license and, if your tuner has it, the phone flash license required to tune it via phone/bluetooth.   Do I need TCU tuning? TCU tuning is NOT required. However, the faster your setup, the more it will assist in track and dragy time consistency.   If I’m ECU tuned by (tuner A) can I get my TCU tuned by (Tuner ? Yes, since it’s a different module and a completely separate flash, you can have two different tuners. However, it is highly recommend that you have both tuned by the same tuner. For me, my TCU tuning will directly complement my ECU tuning style and features and running my ECU and another TCU or vice versa MIGHT cause some issues. At this time and for the foreseeable future, I will only be tuning my current ECU tuned customers TCUs.     I have a SYVECS AWD controller. Do I still need it? Yes! The AWD controllers main job is to control your AWD system. However, with TCU tuning, you will no longer need the auto-shift function as that will be done through the TCU. The AWD controller will still be very beneficial for racers looking to maximize traction on the launch.     Shift schedule changes: holding gears longer at lower pedal input as well as max shift rpm changes. Please note, the new ECU race rom coming out will address 90% of the shitty drivability issues these cars have through custom maps from myself and Racebox—as well as others I am sure.   Increase shift speeds: as seen in the videos I’ve been posting, the TCU shifts much faster once tuned.   Increased shift pressures: as also seen in the videos, much firmer full throttle shifts.      
    • Per Mark Roberts of Sonictune:     Mark Robert Author At this time, no. No ETA either 2016-17 models. You will be able to purchase and install a 2018.5+ TCU though   TCU purchasing and pricing info! As we near the release of TCU tuning, I am going to answer some questions I get asked often.   What do I need for TCU tuning? At this time, you will need a 2018.5+ TCU to be able to tune. If you have a 2016-to early 2018, you will need to replace your TCU with the newer version. One good way to know if your TCU is good is if you have auto upshift in manual mode in 1st gear around 6500 rpms. If your manual 1st gear goes to 7k rpm and will hit the rev limiter unless you shift, you have the older TCU.   Why do I need to buy another ecu license/phone flash if I already have it on my ECU tune? The TCU is its own computer module. It is completely separate from the ECU. Because of this, you will be required to purchase a TCU license and, if your tuner has it, the phone flash license required to tune it via phone/bluetooth.   Do I need TCU tuning? TCU tuning is NOT required. However, the faster your setup, the more it will assist in track and dragy time consistency.   If I’m ECU tuned by (tuner A) can I get my TCU tuned by (Tuner ? Yes, since it’s a different module and a completely separate flash, you can have two different tuners. However, it is highly recommend that you have both tuned by the same tuner. For me, my TCU tuning will directly complement my ECU tuning style and features and running my ECU and another TCU or vice versa MIGHT cause some issues. At this time and for the foreseeable future, I will only be tuning my current ECU tuned customers TCUs.     I have a SYVECS AWD controller. Do I still need it? Yes! The AWD controllers main job is to control your AWD system. However, with TCU tuning, you will no longer need the auto-shift function as that will be done through the TCU. The AWD controller will still be very beneficial for racers looking to maximize traction on the launch.     Shift schedule changes: holding gears longer at lower pedal input as well as max shift rpm changes. Please note, the new ECU race rom coming out will address 90% of the shitty drivability issues these cars have through custom maps from myself and Racebox—as well as others I am sure.   Increase shift speeds: as seen in the videos I’ve been posting, the TCU shifts much faster once tuned.   Increased shift pressures: as also seen in the videos, much firmer full throttle shifts.      
    • The fancy pants red shock tower brace is finally incoming from MX5 Mania, getting it shipped from 'Merica has been a long and problematic process, and GWR, the 'Merican supplier will not ship directly to consumers outside of the US, Mania basically had to order a heap of them, the colour choice was silver, or red, and we all know anything red adds 5 killerwasps of dynotorques..... Whilst it does fit over a 2.5, and I've seen a few photos and videos of it being installed and fitting, google also says it might get real close to the FAB9 intake front runner, people in the US says it does fit with the FAB9 intake, except for one person who said it slightly touched.......so there is that.....LOL..... As it seems that I am the first in AU to have this combination of parts there's no local knowledge about fitment, so I'm just a willing guinea pig in this endeavour, I'll cross my fingers and toes and hope for the best In other news, I ordered stuff from China  on the same day I ordered the 23° silicone bend from Victoria, the stuff from China arrived a day ago, the 23° silicone bend is still travelling around Australia thanks to Australia Post, and "may" be here next week
    • Very good news...I contacted Racebox about it last night. My car is a 2016 so remains to be seen if it is compatible, requires a TCU swap, or is impossible.
×
×
  • Create New...