Brought to you by Advantage Wollongong
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Adam Stanshall had had enough of the punishing Sydney grind.
Qualified as both an accountant and school teacher, Stanshall had skills he could take anywhere.
So in 2006, he uprooted from bustling Double Bay in Sydney’s swanky east to a town of just 900 on the tranquil NSW mid-north coast, halfway between Sydney and Brisbane.
Things ticked along nicely. Stanshall, 42, had an accounting business, surfed and soaked up the sea change. But when he and wife Grace, 37, had children, the game changed.
“When the kids came along, we realised we wanted somewhere with a bit more amenity,” he says. “Ideally we wanted somewhere that was a bit more diverse, more vibrant and had just a few more options for the boys.”
Sydney was too intense, most regional towns too sleepy. They homed in on Wollongong. Stanshall had studied there, heard good things about the changes happening and saw it as a happy medium between city and sea change.
For the price of a studio flat, “at most”, in Double Bay, the Stanshalls two years ago bought a four-bedroom house with 180-degree ocean views in Warrawong, and expanded the publishing company they run.
Wollongong has everything they need for the business, with the added benefit of lower overheads, while Sydney – where Stanshall works occasionally – is 90 minutes away.
“It’s got all the business resources we need, we’re close enough to Sydney, and have a coastal lifestyle, affordable housing, great beaches, cafes and restaurants,” he says.
“The boys love it. We’ve never looked back.”
The Stanshalls are part of a growing cohort realising that Wollongong today isn’t what it used to be.
Traditionally dependent on steel, mining and manufacturing, Wollongong has been transformed by smart economic diversification in technology, defense, trade/logistics and advanced manufacturing sectors, as well as a flood of big-ticket investment.
Where steel company BlueScope once employed 25,000 people, today that figure is about 3000. At the same time, the knowledge services sector, including shared services, financial services and superannuation, has exploded, with more than 85 sites employing about 6000 people.
Wollongong City Council economic development manager Mark Grimson says the city’s CBD has flourished thanks to $1.3 billion in investment in the past five years, with a further $600 million in the pipeline.
The region’s economic diversity has also been supported by the creation of the University of Wollongong’s $600 million Innovation Campus, home to a research, technology and business precinct employing 1500 people, and the $16.5 million iAccelerate Centre – a business incubator hosting 280 start-ups and entrepreneurs.
Grimson says the CBD has been turned into a “vibrant, living, breathing space” due in part to about 900 residential units being completed or nearing completion, and a further 1200 under construction or approved. This is fuelling an expected population growth in the CBD of 150 per cent over the next two years.
“Wollongong has changed substantially over the last decade, and certainly the last five years,” he says. “It’s getting more of a Melbourne feel about it all the time. We’ve had 85 new bars and restaurants open in the past four years alone.”
Grimson says businesses are increasingly viewing Wollongong as somewhere with all the infrastructure and services required to run a business, but at lower cost and with a better lifestyle than Sydney.
An example is UK publisher Twinkl, which chose Wollongong because it saw scant advantage in being in Sydney, or technology multinational NEC. which set up there and employed more than 110 people.
Wollongong has sold itself aggressively against big sister Sydney, pushing the fact that property is 35 to 40 per cent cheaper in Wollongong, that staff turnover is around 5 per cent compared with Sydney’s 25 per cent and wages are 85 per cent of what Sydneysiders earn in the shared services sector.
“We believe it’s one of Australia’s most liveable cities with some of the state’s best beaches without the congestion. And without the Sydney price tag.”
