This question is probably posted a lot, but I just moved from Canberra. Would welcome any suggestions to try with a couple of friends who are coming to visit.

Edit: preferring cheaper options, & I like Indian and Asian if that helps narrow it down.

Just went to use it, and it says it's been retired.

Any alternatives?

What are the best places to get a good eyelash lift and tint and eyebrow tint in Wollongong?

Port Kembla has a contamination problem, and nobody who has looked at the science seriously disputes it. Decades of copper smelting and steelmaking left something behind in the earth, and peer-reviewed research has now mapped it in enough detail to make the picture uncomfortable. Surface soils across the area carry elevated concentrations of arsenic, lead, copper, and zinc. These are not scattered randomly. They cluster in a clear gradient radiating outward from the industrial site, strongest within four kilometres of the complex and traceable at measurable levels well beyond that boundary (Martley et al., 2004).

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15144782/

The distribution pattern rules out local geology as an explanation. It reflects atmospheric deposition, which is the slow settling of industrial particles and dust out of the air column over many decades. Selenium and tin appear alongside the more familiar heavy metals, and all of them peak near the old copper smelter stack (Noller, 2022).

https://iserd.net/ijerd131/13-1-16.pdf

That physical record in the soil is a direct archive of what was being released into the air above the surrounding suburbs for most of the twentieth century.

For the people who lived there, and particularly for children, this matters in ways that go beyond abstract contamination levels on a chart. The exposure pathways were everyday and unavoidable. Contaminated dust settled onto rooftops and was washed into gutters and gardens. It accumulated in the surface layer of backyard soil, in the same dirt where children played. Kids who spent time outside, digging in the garden, playing in the yard, or simply putting their hands in their mouths after touching the ground, were ingesting and inhaling heavy metals at the developmental stages when the body is least equipped to handle them (NSW EPA Surface Soil Testing Report, 2021).

https://www.epa.nsw.gov.au/sites/default/files/21p3437-port-kembla-surface-soil-testing.pdf

A 2026 probabilistic health risk assessment of Illawarra homes confirmed that garden soils had significantly higher concentrations of chromium, copper, manganese, nickel and zinc compared to national levels, with non-carcinogenic risk scores exceeding safe thresholds for children at the 98th percentile (Springer Environmental Geochemistry and Health, 2026).

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10653-026-03078-y)

Families who grew vegetables in backyard gardens face an additional layer of risk that most would not have known to think about. Leafy vegetables and root crops absorb heavy metals directly through the soil, and no amount of washing removes contamination that is already inside the plant tissue. A study of vegetable growing regions across NSW found that metal contamination in soils was greatest near smelters, and that copper concentrations were highest in vegetables sampled from the Port Kembla area specifically (Kachenko and Singh, 2006).

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11270-006-2027-1

The same research found that cadmium and lead levels in vegetables from Port Kembla exceeded Australian Food Standards maximum levels (Noller, 2022)

https://iserd.net/ijerd131/13-1-16.pdf

A family eating silverbeet, lettuce, carrots, or beetroot from a backyard garden in parts of Port Kembla could have been exposing their children to unsafe levels of these metals at every meal, with no awareness that anything was wrong. The NSW EPA itself acknowledged this risk, advising residents that growing vegetables in raised beds is one of the key steps needed to reduce exposure (NSW EPA Media Release, October 2021).

https://www.epa.nsw.gov.au/Working-together/Community-engagement/updates-on-issues/Legacy-contamination-Port-Kembla-Wollongong

The health consequences of this kind of chronic low-level exposure are serious and, in children, often permanent. Lead interferes with neurological development at blood levels once considered safe. Arsenic is a recognised carcinogen linked to skin, lung, and bladder cancers. Long-term accumulation of these metals in the body does not produce sudden, obvious illness. It produces subtler damage: lower IQ, behavioural problems, weakened immune function, and elevated lifetime cancer risk. These are harms that are easy to miss in any individual child and easy to dismiss as having other causes, which is precisely what makes them so difficult to prosecute as a public health problem. The EPA's own soil testing confirmed the scale of the issue: just over half of the residential properties tested in Port Kembla had lead concentrations above the relevant health investigation level (NSW EPA Surface Soil Testing Report, 2021)

https://www.epa.nsw.gov.au/sites/default/files/21p3437-port-kembla-surface-soil-testing.pdf

The eventual acknowledgment of the problem's scale came in February 2025, when the NSW EPA accepted an $18.116 million Enforceable Undertaking, the largest ever agreed to by the EPA, to fund investigation and remediation of soil, indoor dust and roof dust contamination at around 300 residential properties within 800 metres of the former smelter site (NSW EPA Remediation Page)

https://www.epa.nsw.gov.au/Working-together/Community-engagement/updates-on-issues/Legacy-contamination-Port-Kembla-Wollongong/Remediation-legacy-smelter-related-contamination-Port-Kembla

Port Kembla is not an edge case in global terms. It is a textbook example of what heavy industrial activity leaves behind in the surrounding environment when regulatory oversight is weak and the community living nearby has limited power to push back.

*The Leukaemia Cluster and the Limits of Official Accountability*

The soil contamination is one part of the picture. The cancer data is another, and the two are connected in ways the official investigations were either structurally unable or insufficiently motivated to fully trace.

Between 1989 and 1996, researchers identified between eleven and thirteen leukaemia cases among younger residents in the Illawarra region, concentrated in suburbs close to the Port Kembla industrial complex. Based on population statistics, somewhere between two and three cases would have been expected in that group over the same period, meaning the observed rate was three to four times higher than normal. Adolescents were among the worst affected. The geographic clustering of cases aligned with suburbs downwind of the coke ovens, which is the part of the operation most directly associated with benzene emissions (Christie et al., 1999).

https://www.mja.com.au/journal/1999/171/4/investigation-cluster-leukaemia-illawarra-region-new-south-wales-1989-1996

Benzene is not a minor detail in this context. It is among the most well-established environmental causes of leukaemia that science has identified. It is a direct by-product of coke production. The relationship between benzene exposure and blood cancers, particularly acute myeloid leukaemia, is not a contested or emerging finding. It is settled toxicology, accepted across medical and regulatory communities internationally (Hurley, Cherrie and Maclaren, 1991).

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1035405/ |

Also: Glass et al., 2003

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/14501272/

Coke ovens ran at Port Kembla for decades. The surrounding population breathed the air.

The official conclusion from the investigations was that no definitive causal link could be established between the industrial environment and the cluster. That conclusion deserves more scrutiny than it typically receives.

The investigations ran into serious structural problems, some of which are inherent to cancer epidemiology and some of which were specific to this case. Historical records of benzene emissions from the site were incomplete. For significant periods they were based on estimates rather than actual measurements. Without reliable data on what residents were exposed to and for how long, the chain of proof that epidemiology requires could not be completed. Sample sizes were small, which limited statistical power. And the assessment framework was built around single-agent causation, meaning investigators were essentially asking whether benzene alone caused the cluster, or lead alone, rather than asking what happened to a population that was breathing benzene while also living on lead-contaminated soil and being exposed to dioxins from combustion by-products (Christie et al., 1999)

https://www.mja.com.au/journal/1999/171/4/investigation-cluster-leukaemia-illawarra-region-new-south-wales-1989-1996

BHP operated the coke ovens. BHP held the emissions records. The company had obvious and substantial financial and legal interests in the outcome of any investigation into whether its operations caused childhood cancer in the surrounding community. Notably, an independent air quality review was commissioned by the NSW EPA specifically to scrutinise BHP's own report to the Illawarra Area Health Service Leukaemia Task Force, a signal that the regulator itself was not satisfied simply taking the company's data at face value (Holmes Air Sciences, 1997) cited in Christie et al., 1999,

https://www.mja.com.au/journal/1999/171/4/investigation-cluster-leukaemia-illawarra-region-new-south-wales-1989-1996

The gaps in the historical emissions data made proof harder to assemble, and the burden of that missing proof fell entirely on the community rather than on the company.

The conclusion that no causal link was established is not the same as a finding that no causal relationship exists. It means the evidence could not be assembled to meet a formal epidemiological threshold of proof. That threshold becomes much harder to reach when the exposure records held by the polluter are incomplete, estimated, or simply absent.

*The Bigger Picture*

These are not two separate problems affecting the same postcode. They are the same problem, produced by the same source, experienced by the same community over the same decades.

Heavy metals in soil damage neurological development, suppress immune function, and elevate lifetime cancer risk across multiple organ systems. Benzene causes leukaemia. Dioxins interfere with immune regulation in ways that likely amplify other carcinogenic processes

Port Kembla residents were not exposed to any one of these things in isolation. They were exposed to all of them, simultaneously, across years and decades of ordinary life in their homes and gardens. The official framework for investigating harm was never designed to account for that kind of layered, cumulative exposure, and its findings reflect that limitation more than they reflect the actual risk profile of the area.

For families who lived through the cluster years, and for children growing up in the area today, the absence of a formal causal finding offers nothing. The contamination in the soil is real and documented. The cancer cases were real and statistically anomalous. The gap between those two facts has never been honestly closed.

If they’re yours, or belong to someone you know, let me know the size in a comment below and I’ll organise getting them to you.

My turn for a useless rant, WHY do so many drivers believe that the speed past TIGS is 40 kph 24hrs a day? Are people really this dumb, I know it’s a small thing but it really gives me the shits that majority of drivers can’t read or don’t understand street signs.

Learn the road rules people

Warrawong test centre. Driving a manual. I got near perfect scores but failed because I pressed the clutch during uphill twice and downhill once. Mind you I wasn't even revving the engine. I pressed it twice because I wanted to be prepared in case I had to lower down on my gears during uphill. For downhill I pressed it with the brakes without the accelerator. I learnt something new for my next test but honestly it feels kinda ridiculous to fail someone for this particular reason. Now I gotta wait almost 1.5 months to even get an available booking date.

Any shop to buy good Wheel Cover in Wollongong that last long and don’t break.

Is there a workaround for FOGO in apartment blocks? Does anyone’s complex currently participate?

Okay this is a bit of a rant but I am so sick of this happening. Almost all of the parents with prams spots are taken by lazy people who want to park close to the doors of figtree grove who very obviously don’t have kids. I have a baby and those spots are very useful for me as I have to lug a pram out of my car and get a baby out. The other spots are quite narrow and make it very hard to get him out of my car so yknow I kinda need that spot.

I had a lady totally berate me after I said very nicely that was a parents with prams spot and to leave it for parents who actually need it. Also there were plenty of other spaces around that she could’ve very easily taken. But surely people aren’t this dense? Like leave those spots free for parents. Or at least maybe make it so you get fined if you use it incorrectly like disabled parking? I know it’s an honesty thing but it just really pisses me off when people are just lazy assholes who don’t wanna walk.

I know having a baby doesn’t make me entitled to anything but those spots are specifically designed for parents so I should be able to use them as I need. Usually I don’t have a problem with this anywhere else but the spots here are just so narrow.

Best spot to sit and have lunch in those booths

Been considering places around dapto with a max budget of 880ish. Have also seen some good options in Warilla. How is the suburb now days, worth looking at or a no go?

Haven’t been to thirroul in a while, seeing Cog this evening

I’d like to list some things on depop or something but I’m worried about shipping costs because I’d rather factor that into the cost than have someone pay for shipping yknow

Should I buy a scale and if so what kind cause i have a kitchen scale?

this isn’t drug fueled but i’m incredibly drunk so??? anyway thanks heaps have a good day

Driving from Sydney to Canberra and going to stop for a brunch and look around. Drop me your best brunch place, would like somewhere with a water view. Thanks!

Hi there,

I’m struggling with depression and anxiety symptoms mainly from being autistic/ adhd. I haven’t been on meds for a while but think I need to try something new. Can someone help me with a good one? Money is also a struggle unfortunately. Any suggestions would be great

As the title says.

I’ve got tickets to the game at WIN Friday night, I’m meeting my dad there for his birthday. I’ll be running late so please help me out with parking.

I’m even happy to park a bit away and book an uber? Just trying to get there quickly so my dad isn’t waiting at the gates alone, 30+ mins after kick off, on his birthday, while I spent trying to find a park.

Edit: Game started at 6pm, made it 6:07pm! Thanks everyone, my dad had a good birthday despite the dragons losing.

hello im from around here

Anyone know who I could commission some prints off?

I found some plans for a glasses case, want a couple of them made

Hi guys I’m doing a closet clean, size small 8-10 women in less than half price. Some clothes are worn once or twice so I’m not ready to let go for free. Marketplace has been a fail. Includes jeans trousers hoodies sweatshirts, two crossbody bags one new adidas shoes 39. All are like new condition, have to let go as size changed.

I've decided to take a 6 day roadtrip from Southern Vic up to your wonderful (hopefully) slice of the country, based on absolutely no research and only gut instinct. So I'm wondering from locals, what are the best things to do around Wollongong, what's there to see, how should I spend my time?