The Illawarra is a coastal region in the southeast of the Australian state of New South Wales. It is situated immediately south of Sydney and north of the South Coast region. It encompasses the two cities of Wollongong, Shellharbour and the coastal town of Kiama. Wollongong is the largest city within the Illawarra with a population of 240,000, followed by Shellharbour with a population of 70,000 and Kiama with a population of 10,000. These three cities have their own suburbs. Wollongong stretches from Helensburgh in the north to Windang in the south, with Maddens Plains and Cordeaux in the west.
The Illawarra region is characterised by three distinct districts: the north-central district, which is a contiguous urban sprawl centred on Lake Illawarra, the western district defined by the Illawarra escarpment, which leads up to the fringe of Greater Metropolitan Sydney including the Macarthur in the northwest, and to the Southern Highlands region in the southwest, which is historically semi-rural, but now defined by increasing urbanisation.
