Residents along Dumfries Avenue at Mt Ousley used to be able to look out the window of their home and see trees directly across the road.
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But now all they can see is a sound barrier with the busy Mt Ousley Road on the other side - a swathe of trees having been levelled as part of early work on the Mt Ousley interchange.
Dumfries Avenue features houses on one side and a strip of bushland across the road.
Ben and Michaela Hewitt live on the street and, had she not been home, the trees across from their home would have been levelled as well.
"When they started work and it was just kind of fortunate that my wife was home," Mr Hewitt said.
"She basically said 'I don't know what the hell's going on here. We weren't told this huge amount of land was going to be cleared, and so I'm going to come out here with my 18-month-old and sit in the middle of it if it doesn't stop'."
Mr Hewitt said they were "ambushed by this without community consultation".
"There is no other point to community consultation than to do precisely this," he said "This is the reason you do it."
They were told the clearing was to allow for an underbore machine to set up and drill holes in the ground for utility services.
The Mt Ousley interchange Review of Enviromental Factors stated that "mature trees potentially affected by the proposed modification will be retained in residential streets (where possible)".
However, Mr Hewitt said no trees had been marked to be retained and the site manager couldn't point out which ones - if any - would be saved.
Though he said Transport for NSW has since explained the complete scope of the work.
While a sizeable section of the vegetation has been cleared, Mr Hewitt said it could have been even bigger.
"It would have been about a 30-metre strip of land covering maybe the width of about half a dozen houses," he said.
"It's maybe about 15 to 20 metres deep so several hundred square metres for sure. Too many trees to count."
While the clearing work has stopped for the time being, Mr Hewitt said the site of the now bare earth has affected his family's quality of life.
"there's a lot of great things to say about Wollongong and we love our area and community," he said.
"We like living here, but our previous nice view every morning is now significantly worse.
"Walks along our street - which used to be characterised by the sounds of birds in trees - is very probably now just going to be cars and trucks."
A Transport for NSW spokeswoman said new vegetation would be re-established once the Mt Ousley interchange project was complete.
"All reasonable measures will be taken to minimise the loss of vegetation in and around the Mount Ousley Interchange Project," the spokeswoman said.
"Compensatory tree planting will be carried out in affected residential streets on completion of the project."
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Glen Humphries
I'm an award-winning senior journalist with the Illawarra Mercury and have well over two decades' worth of experience in newspapers. I cover the three local councils in the Illawarra for the Mercury, state and federal politics, as well as writing for the TV guide. If I'm not writing, I'm reading.
I'm an award-winning senior journalist with the Illawarra Mercury and have well over two decades' worth of experience in newspapers. I cover the three local councils in the Illawarra for the Mercury, state and federal politics, as well as writing for the TV guide. If I'm not writing, I'm reading.
