Wollongong was the most common area for fines, with parking infringement the most common cause of the action. Photo: Region.
The areas across Wollongong where residents and visitors are most stung by fines have been revealed, with hope the new data could help guide council in reducing incidents and infringements.
About 19,400 fines are handed out every year across the Wollongong local government area, with parking compliance identified as the major issue accounting for the penalties, according to a new report.
The suburb of Wollongong was the biggest hotspot with 12,730 fines issued in the 2024-25 financial year, and 12,270 in the financial year before, 99 per cent of which were related to parking.
Nine hundred and sixty-one fines were issued in North Wollongong last financial year, with 795 in Keiraville, 790 in Austinmer, and 685 in Gwynneville.
In 2024-25, 97 per cent of all fines were related to parking with a failure to pay a parking fee or obey instructions on a sign the top offence.
Other reasons included disobeying parking signs (such as motorbike or bicycle parking), stopping or standing in disabled parking or stopping at the side of a road with a yellow line – which is the same as a no stopping sign.
But while the data gives residents an insight into where and how they could be caught out – Wollongong councillor Dan Hayes hoped it may also inform if there are other avenues to fines which may be effective in reducing the incidents.
“If a certain location, a corner of a street or somewhere is plagued with regular breaches then we should be asking, outside of more compliance, what can be done?” Cr Hayes said.
“I do accept that a lot of the non-compliance is a behavioural issue but I do think we can be a bit more curious as well.
“For example – do we have the restrictions right in these certain areas that may be accumulating lots of fines? Is there a need to change a no stopping area into a no parking area to allow a brief drop-off or pickup? Is the signage easily digestible while driving?”
Councillor Ryan Morris agreed that informing the public was key, especially as changes are made to rules and restrictions.
“The State Government has recently changed Lawrence Hargrave Drive around Bulli; there’s now clearways in place. No-one understands that that’s going on,” he said.
“We need a better education program.”
Animal compliance was the next highest infringement type, with hundreds of fines issued, including for dog attacks, and aggressive or dangerous dogs, a stray or roaming dog, general dog or owner misbehaviour and registration requirements.
Bulli was the area with the most animal compliance related fines with 44 issued in the 2024-25 financial year.
There were 32 animal compliance fines issued in Port Kembla and 22 in Austinmer.
Fifty-two building compliance fines were issued in the same financial year, with Huntley accounting for 17 of them.
Fifteen fines were issued for development and environmental breaches, and 26 for food safety fines.
“I really would love to point out that our food service area seems to be extremely well maintained throughout our entire LGA with negligible amount of fines being put out,” Cr Morris said.
“So shows that we are a great place to come down and eat food and enjoy our restaurants.”
Council staff clarified that a reason the number of fines issued for non-compliance for parking could be so much higher compared to other types of infringements, was because penalties for those included other options, such as warnings.
