Users of the online mapping service WhereIs found some of the Steel City's smaller streets had turned into a few of the most expansive roadways in the land.

The Cooper Development Rd had popped up on Corrimal St, Church St, Keira St and even part of Gipps St under the WhereIs glitch. A 186km stretch of roadway leading to the Outback town of Durham, it needed multiple streets around Wollongong to make itself at home in its new location.

Those looking for directions down Smith St may have thought that thoroughfare's controversial new cycle paths had been expanded into a renaming as Adventure Way, a vast expanse of bitumen heading west from Cunnamulla.

A Wollongong man, who insisted his name not be used, said his business had been troubled by the impact on service delivery.

"We have work-arounds in place but WhereIs has yet to acknowledge our complaints or contact us regarding any fixes," he said.

Thryv, a US-based company, took over WhereIs along with the WhitePages and Yellow Pages when it bought former Telstra subsidiary Sensis early this year for $257 million.

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A Thryv spokesman said the data had been reset and the maps republished.

"We take data feeds from a number of highly respectable third parties such as Telstra and Australia Post," he said.

"All these data are then loaded into the WhereIs system. In this case something has gone awry. I doubt this is an attempted takeover from Queenslanders, but one can never be too sure.

"We have reset the data and will republish the maps.

"I suppose the only saving grace is that due to current COVID restrictions [and] the 5km rule, not too many people from outside Wollongong can drive in and get lost. And, with so many people in Wollongong wishing they could holiday in Queensland we wanted to give them a feeling of a holiday at home."

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