Berkeley is a suburb of Wollongong, New South Wales. The suburb is located in Wollongong's southern suburbs, on the northern shore of Lake Illawarra.
The suburb is generally disadvantaged, with an unemployment rate of 11.2%, more than double the national average, and a median household income more than one-third less than the national average.[1] Nearly one in four dwellings consist of public housing owned by Housing NSW.[1] The suburb is also home to a small shopping precinct that contains a supermarket, petrol station, post office and a community swimming pool. There are also several primacy schools in the area and a high school, the Illawarra Sports High.
Public transport is provided by Premier Illawarra, a bus company contracted by the New South Wales Ministry of Transport to provide services to most of the Illawarra region. Responding to Berkeley's history as a drug capital for the Illawarra, several drug & alcohol treatment centres are based there, including the Wollongong Crisis Centre and Kedesh House.
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