Wollongong (pronounced ‘Woolon-Gong’) is a small city an hour south of Sydney in the coastal Illawarra region (see Box 1 and Figure 1). It has long been considered one of Australia’s industrial heartlands. In the twentieth century growth of the metal refining and processing industry led to significant expansion of the city’s population.
Australia’s protectionist policies (such as tariffs on imports) made it viable to expand local industries that were seen as vital to national security and self-sufficiency following the Second World War. Electrolytic refining, smelting and coal mining were all established in the wider Illawarra region. Migrants from southern Europe, fleeing war and economic hardship, came to Wollongong to take up new jobs in manufacturing plants.
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