Australia Day Wollongong: 314 busts for parking, zero for littering

After an Australia Day which once again left Illawarra beaches sullied by the rubbish visitors left behind, the council said it had employed extra staff on both rubbish cleanup duties, and parking enforcement.

Rubbish left behind by visitors after January 26 drew an outcry from residents. Many called for more temporary near popular sites but Wollongong City Council said some extra bins were in place - yet still people left their junk behind.

The focus from enforcement staff was on parking.

Read more: Thanks for a fun day, now clean up our rubbish

"Wollongong City Council's parking compliance officers patrolled across Australia Day, and focused on illegal parking around our beaches and foreshore," a council spokeswoman said.

"In total, officers issued 214 penalty notices and 100 warnings across the day."

The annual festival of detritus has now drawn offers of assistance from the business community, with Northern Illawarra Chamber of Commerce president Greg Soster saying business owners may be keen to work with the council on a solution.

"We want people to visit, it's great to see them come," he said. "We hope that they spend money in the businesses - but we don't have data on how much they spend.

"We want to ensure that business are prepared. How can we help other stakeholders like council assist [for less] frustration?

"I think if resources are tight, there's the potential for other local businesses to help alleviate the pressure. I'm sure there's ways businesses can help locally, be it waste contractors or whoever, who could help."

Councils employed extra staff. "Since December we've also been deploying additional staff on weekends and public holidays to maintain and clean public spaces, empty bins and clean toilets in areas that we know are popular and highly used," a WCC spokeswoman said.

"On Australia Day our staff worked throughout the day and into the evening to service bins, clean toilets and pick up ground litter ... we a number of people illegally dumped belongings such as broken shelters, beach chairs, prams and sports equipment at our beaches and around bins."

Support for metered parking, one suggestion to address congestion, was muted.

"We'd like to be consulted if there was to be a proposal for any paid parking meters," Mr Soster said.

Lord Mayor Gordon Bradbery earlier said it may not make sense to install metering infrastructure to deal with a small number of problem days each year.

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