Mayor of Wollongong

The City of Wollongong local government area is represented by a Council comprising a Lord Mayor and 12 Councillors. Both the Lord Mayor and the Councillors are popularly elected, that is they are elected by persons enrolled on the Commonwealth electoral roll.
The City is divided into three Wards with four Councillors elected from each Ward.
The current Lord Mayor and Councillors were elected for a one-off, five year term on 3 September 2011.
The next Council elections are scheduled for September 2016 and Councillors will be elected for a term of four years. Voting is compulsory for all persons on the Commonwealth electoral roll at that time.
The Lord Mayor and Councillors phone and email contacts are listed below:
Lord Mayor Councillor Gordon Bradbery OAM
Lord Mayor Councillor Gordon Bradbery OAM comes to Wollongong City Council from a strong background in the community. He has been Chaplain to NSW Police, Rural Fire Service, RSL Padre and Administrator of Wollongong Mission of the Uniting Church and Minister of the Church on the Mall for the past 15 years. His services to the community earned him an OAM.
For 15 years he also served as Chairperson of Lifeline South Coast, was a board member of Unanderra Care Services (aged care service) and served as an advocate for homeless and mental health services.
He has supported individuals and groups in business and entrepreneurial initiatives in Wollongong City.

Born and initially raised in Tamworth, Bradbery moved to Sydney and was schooled at Barnardos Children's Home in Normanhurst between the ages of 10 and 16; an experience Bradbery refers to "being raised at the school of hard knocks".

The majority of Bradbery's 25 years as an ordained minister was spent at the Wollongong Mission of the Uniting Church, known as the "Church on the Mall" in Crown St, Wollongong. In addition to his ministerial duties, Bradbery was also responsible for the Wollongong Community Care Centre that runs regular welfare programs for the disadvantaged, including a popular soup kitchen. Bradbery also worked actively with various elements of the community, adopting specialist areas in community development and social justice programs, as well as trauma and bereavement counselling. Bradbery has been recognised through numerous awards for his work with the disadvantaged, the traumatised and the vulnerable.

In addition to his work as a minister and in the community, Bradbery also undertook continued education, earning bachelor's degrees in psychology, sociology and divinity at the University of Sydney.

Following a meeting of the Presbytery of Illawarra of the Uniting Church, the decision was made not to extend Bradbery's term as the head of the Wollongong Mission beyond 2011, with the Chairman, David Jones citing "need to undertake succession planning for Ministry Leadership given the length of time Gordon has been in this placement". There was significant uproar among parts of the Wollongong community as a result of this decision, largely due to Bradbery's extensive community service work.

In 1996, Bradbery was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia, "in recognition of service to the community, particularly for his role during the 1994 Sydney bushfires and the subsequent relief efforts for those affected".

In 1996 and again in 2009, Bradbery was awarded Rotary International's Paul Harris Fellowship Medal for outstanding community service.




Wollongong

Wollongong, "The Gong", is a seaside city located in the Illawarra region of New South Wales, Australia. Wollongong lies on the narrow coastal strip between the Illawarra Escarpment and the Pacific Ocean, 82 kilometres (51 miles) south of Sydney. Wollongong's Statistical District has a population of 292,190 (2010 est.), making Wollongong the third largest city in New South Wales after Sydney and Newcastle, and the tenth largest city in Australia.

The Wollongong metropolitan area extends from Helensburgh in the north to Shell Cove in the south. It sits within the Wollongong Statistical District, which covers the local authority areas of Wollongong, Shellharbour and Kiama, extending from the town of Helensburgh in the north to Gerroa in the south Geologically, the city is located in the south-eastern part of the Sydney basin, which extends from Newcastle to Nowra.

Wollongong is noted for its heavy industry, its port activity and the quality of its physical setting, occupying a narrow coastal plain between an almost continuous chain of surf beaches and the cliffline of the rainforest-covered Illawarra escarpment. It has two cathedrals, churches of many denominations and the Nan Tien Temple, the largest Buddhist temple in the southern hemisphere. Wollongong has a long history of coalmining and industry. The city attracts many tourists each year, and is a regional centre for the South Coast fishing industry. The University of Wollongong has around 37,000 students and is internationally recognised.

The name "Wollongong" is believed to mean "seas of the South" in the local Aboriginal language, referring to NSW's Southern Coast. Other meanings have been suggested, such as "great feast of fish", "hard ground near water", "song of the sea", "sound of the waves", "many snakes" and "five islands".