1) New Year's Eve in the Gong

Wollongong revellers farewelled 2012 in spectacular fashion, with thousands lining the harbour foreshore to ring in the new year. - Shannon Tonkin

2) Welcome to Wollongong's tent city

Welcome to Wollongong's tent city - a melting pot community that sprang up on the foreshore on Monday night as hordes of visitors from western Sydney sought somewhere beachside to ring in the new year. - Angela Thompson

3) How Berkeley mum survives on Newstart

On Tuesday mornings Kathryn Bullard wakes with one thing on her mind: the supermarket catalogues. If you're going to live on the dole, Ms Bullard says, you've got to know the specials. - Angela Thompson

4) Finally, a buyer for Gong's oldest house

Keera Vale has been sold to buyers committed to restoring the crumbling building to its former glory. Wollongong Public School principal Harold Cosier and partner Jenny Dixon plan to spend the next five years on what many would see as a daunting project. - Michele Tydd

5) Arson suspected in Port Kembla school blaze

An arsonist is thought responsible for a fire that gutted the old Port Kembla primary school on Thursday night, putting in limbo plans to convert the site into a community arts precinct. - Angela Thompson

6) Third cruel blow for Fredericks IGA stores

Police say there is no evidence to suggest the owners of IGA stores in Jamberoo and Kiama Downs are being targeted, despite three attacks on their shops in less than two weeks.  - Kate McIlwain

7) Flying fox roost causing a stink at Figtree

A flourishing colony of flying foxes at Figtree is driving some businesses and residents batty. It is estimated that tens of thousands of grey-headed flying foxes have turned a patch of bushland just north of the freeway exit into their summer home. - Michele Tydd

8) Stuart Park campers get leniency ... this time

North Wollongong's temporary "tent city" will be subject to a new control strategy by the time the next New Year's Eve countdown occurs, according to Wollongong City Council. - Angela Thompson

9) Search for Kiama man who saved a life

Ambulance officials are keen to get in touch with a shy hero who saved the life of a man in the waters off Kiama. A 65-year-old man was snorkelling in the bay when it is understood that he ingested  some water and lost consciousness. - Glen Humphries

10) How the Illawarra spent New Year's Day

The sky is an empty white in the first daylight hours of 2013 – a downer for the hundreds who have camped overnight on the Illawarra coast so they can wake up and find themselves already at the beach. - Angela Thompson