A Farmborough Heights mother has warned about the dangerous state of Wollongong Harbour following last month’s huge storms, after her son was left with a nasty eye injury while playing in the area this week.
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Natalia Winchester’s nine-year-old son Javier was playing near the Breakwater Lighthouse on Tuesday while out on a ride with his older brother.
Ms Winchester was jogging behind her sons and saw “a huge commotion” ahead, with her youngest child lying on the ground.
“Everyone I’ve spoken to has been really nice, but I’m feeling like a pinball, all just to ensure that nobody else is injured.”
“Javier had pushed on the railing which was sticking out and it flung back and hit him,” she said.
“This huge metal railing fell on him and he ended up having to go to hospital.
“He is just so lucky there’s no long-term damage.”
Keen to prevent injuries to others during the school holidays, and concerned about the length of time it had taken to fix the broken railing after the storms, Ms Winchester said she phoned Wollongong City Council to report the incident.
She said she was told fixing the damaged harbour area – which is NSW Crown Land – was the responsibility of the NSW Government and given a number to call regarding the incident.
But a few days later, she said she was told by NSW Public Works that the council was in charge of organising the repairs.
“Everyone I’ve spoken to has been really nice, but I’m feeling like a pinball, all just to ensure that nobody else is injured,” she said.
“I’m just worried about the process, because there seems to be ill-defined roles over who should fix this.”
The Mercury contacted both agencies, asking who had responsibility for the fix but received no official response from either the council or Crown Land before the paper’s deadline.
However, a council spokeswoman did indicate the land was not owned or managed by the council.
The early June storm flooded large parts of the Illawarra and caused havoc along the coastline due to a combined east coast low and king tide.
In the Wollongong harbour area, it flattened the heritage-listed sea wall at Wollongong’s Flagstaff Hill, shifted parts of the break wall, damaged fences and completely inundated the Continental Pools.
Kate McIlwain
For more than a decade, I've helped the Illawarra Mercury set the news agenda across the region. Currently I'm the paper's health reporter - covering the stories of Illawarra workers and residents in the wake of a global pandemic and at a time where our health systems are stretched to the limit.
For more than a decade, I've helped the Illawarra Mercury set the news agenda across the region. Currently I'm the paper's health reporter - covering the stories of Illawarra workers and residents in the wake of a global pandemic and at a time where our health systems are stretched to the limit.
