It looks like the rain-soaked grass on Flagstaff Hill has been churned up by an opportunistic hoon, with muddy tyre tracks now etched across the park.
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But it turns out one of the council's own garbage collectors is responsible for the mess, after they "misread the firmness of the surface" and got bogged during the usual Monday morning bin collection.
"Council vehicles are required to drive on the grass reserve in order to empty the bins," a spokeswoman said.
"The operator misread the firmness of the surface and, due to the recent wet weather, the vehicle became bogged and had to be towed out by another council vehicle. Unfortunately the grass was damaged."
The council said it would repair the damage "as weather conditions and work schedules allow", but with Monday's sunshine set to be shortlived the ground won't have much time to dry out in the coming days.
A new east coast low is threatening more wild weather to the NSW coast later this week.
Weatherzone meteorologist Ben McBurney said the heaviest rainfall would occur in Queensland and on the NSW North Coast, but the Illawarra could be affected.
It was not expected to be as intense or long-lived as last week's three-day stretch of damaging wind and rain, but he warned some areas near the escarpment could get up to 100 millimetres of rain.
"It looks like the low will be at its strongest off the Illawarra, but it will be a fair bit offshore," Mr McBurney said.
While noting the Illawarra was not as hard hit as other areas, such as northern Sydney and the Hunter, he said rivers were still high and some trees were still in precarious situations meaning the second round of wild weather could prove damaging.
"The ground is saturated and there'll be a lot of run-off, so those rivers that are still quite high will rise much quicker than it did before," he said.
"On its own, with a period of dry weather beforehand, this would be nothing to worry about but given the weather we've had recently, this follow-up system could be enough to push some places over and cause flooding."
Cooler temperatures and showers are forecast in Wollongong for the rest of the week, becoming more likely on Wednesday and into the weekend.