Balgownie () is a small suburb of
Wollongong,
New South Wales,
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
.
Balgownie lies to the north-west of the Wollongong
CBD. It stretches from the lower slopes of
Mount Keira along the
Illawarra escarpment to the base of the
Broker's Nose promontory. To the east, Balgownie is bordered by the light industrial and commercial suburb of
Fairy Meadow.
The main street, Balgownie Road, connects the suburb to the nearby
Princes Highway
Princes Highway is a major road in Australia, extending from Sydney via Melbourne to Adelaide through the states of New South Wales, Victoria (Australia), Victoria and South Australia. It has a length of (along Highway 1) or via the former ...
. Balgownie is mostly residential with a small commercial centre known as the Balgownie Village.
Balgownie has a similar history to many towns on the NSW south coast. When first settled in the 19th century, Balgownie was the centre of local
logging
Logging is the process of cutting, processing, and moving trees to a location for transport. It may include skidding, on-site processing, and loading of trees or logs onto trucks or skeleton cars.
Logging is the beginning of a supply chain ...
,
coal mining
Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from ...
and
farming industries. With the economic and population growth of the 20th century Balgownie was overtaken by the expanding
urban sprawl and transformed from a small country hamlet to a residential suburb.
Balgownie is home to citizens right across the socioeconomic spectrum, from public housing estates in the east to multimillion-dollar mansions on the escarpment.
Sites of interest include the Balgownie Public School's museum, The Bally Pub, Balgownie Village Patisserie (formerly Kristian's Bakery), the Urban Grind Cafe and the war memorial. This war memorial will have extensive developments during the next few years. There are also several fine eateries in the suburb including Il Porcellino and Il Nido which serve Australian and Italian cuisine.
Over the last five years, the Australian property market has exploded and as a result many of the open spaces and paddocks that once greened the suburb have been turned into town house or "villa" developments.
The area features the oldest active
soccer
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...
club in Australia,
Balgownie Rangers
Balgownie Rangers Football Club is an association football club based in Balgownie, New South Wales. They play in the Illawarra District League. Founded in 1883, Balgownie is believed to be the oldest running association football club in Australi ...
, founded in 1883.
[ ]
References
External links
The Balgownie PubBalgownie Public School InformationThe Balgownie Rangers Football (Soccer) ClubBalgownie Community Web Portal
{{Wollongong suburbs
Suburbs of Wollongong