"Northern Wollongong beaches" a Wollongong Travel Page by austarman

This is a beautiful view point and picnic area.
From here you can see the village and beach of Thirroul as well as Austinmer beach and beyond.

This is Thirroul beach in the Northern side of Wollongong.
You can see the yellow and red flags which indicate the safest area that you can swim in.
If you see these flags on the beach it means that the beach is patrolled, and if you swim between them you will be monitored by a trained life gaurd.
On this day there was also some sort of surf contest taking place.

Often in Summer (and especially when I have my son Ben staying with me), I like to walk along the often isolated and quiet beaches of the northern suburbs of Wollongong.
This is taken on the beach between Thirroul and Austinmer.

This is Thirroul beach during a summer surf carnival.
Parts of the beach are roped off for a contest between the rival surf clubs from other parts of the Illawarra area.

As with much of the Wollongong area, the mountains run along adjacent to the sea for kilometres.
Often there is very little flat land in between that is why the Wollongong area is quite long but not very wide in many places.

We really thought that those dark clouds above were bringing rain with them but it never came. ;-)
There was hardly a soul on this beach on this particular day.

This is my brother and my son caught unawares at the Sandon point picnic area.
There is a walking and bicycle track that runs along though this area for about 12 kilometres all the way to Wollongong beach.
This spot is perfect for a family picnic or barbecue.

This is my favorite Wollongong beach because is has a large grassed area for relaxing under the pine trees and lots of shops for food. ;-)
It has salt water pools for swimming in and a large playground area for the children.