Week after week reports filtered through of booze-fuelled crime, bar brawls, assaults, heavy-handed security guards and vicious assaults by drunken thugs in Wollongong mall.

So bad was the situation that the Glasshouse Tavern at one time had the unenviable record of being named the second most violent establishment in the state.

But there has been a major turnaround, with the Dapto Hotel and the Shellharbour Club being removed from the annual list of violent NSW venues.

So too have the Harp, Hotel Illawarra, Castros and the Albion Park Hotel, which were on the 2010 list.

Just one Illawarra hotel - Corrimal's Palm Court - remains on the list, and we're told it is now under new management and doing its best to end anti-social behaviour and become more family friendly.

That only one hotel is on the state's so-called "shame list" is a credit to our hoteliers, who have embraced Wollongong's Precinct Liquor Accord stringent restrictions to curb alcohol-related violence.

We concur with Australian Hotels Association (NSW) CEO Paul Nicolaou, who has described Wollongong as a "shining light".