Fire and Rescue NSW hazardous materials (HAZMAT) crews were called to the harbour on Wednesday morning, acting swiftly to contain a 50-metre long slick. 

Emergency services were alerted to a “sheen on the water” about 15 metres from the shore just before 11am, a FRNSW spokeswoman said. 

Three crews, including two HAZMAT units, responded to the incident, with firefighters using a boat to deploy absorbent booms in the water. 

The site was handed over to the Department of Industry (Lands) and reported to the Environment Protection Authority (EPA).

It is understood the spill may have been residual fuel from boats in the area.

Debate about harbour upgrades resurfaced recently, after Wollongong lord mayor Gordon Bradbery floated the need for state government improvements to the precinct “as a matter of urgency”. 

Wollongong Yacht Club Commodore Stephen Phillips said this week’s spill was an example of the consequences associated with inadequate facilities.  

Mr Phillips, who has been with the club for about 30 years, told the Mercury there was no longer any fuel available at the harbour, meaning boat owners had to use jerry cans to fill their vessels. 

“All these sort of ad hoc measurements people have to take to get around the lack of facilities opens up the chance of a pollution incident happening in the harbour,” he said. 

“You’re dealing with jerry cans of diesel; it only takes somebody to drop one in the water and then you’ve got a diesel spill.”

Mr Phillips said working harbours were usually manned, allowing for a quick clean-up of any spills. 

“If you had a boatyard there, for instance, there’d be somebody based there who would be able to look after those sort of incidents,” he said.

A spokesman for the Department of Industry (Lands) said the department was not a provider of refuelling facilities, but was “open to proposals from commercial entities seeking to establish a refuelling operation at Wollongong Harbour”.

“Wollongong Yacht Club proposed a temporary boat retrieval and minor repair facility,” he said.

“The Wollongong Yacht Club proposed additional activities that posed environmental pollution risks, which could not be mitigated on that site sufficiently to ensure a pollution event would not occur. The Wollongong Yacht Club elected not to proceed.”