Australia · State of New South Wales · Wollongong
Berkeley, Wollongong — Area Guide & Where to Stay
Berkeley is a suburb on the southern side of Wollongong, New South Wales, standing along the northern shore of Lake Illawarra.
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Where to stay in Berkeley
Where you base yourself shapes the visit — here's the character of each area.
The lake is the reason to consider it. Berkeley stands on the northern shore of Lake Illawarra, which gives a stay out here open water on its southern side and puts the restaurants and the hotel desks of Wollongong a drive to the north instead. Rooms in the suburb are few.
Anyone who wants the lake in the morning and the city in the evening ends up choosing which of the two they would rather walk to.
Few places to stay in Berkeley — most visitors book in Wollongong nearby.
About Berkeley
What are the main landmarks in Berkeley?
Nothing built is on the list. What Berkeley has instead is water: Lake Illawarra lies right along the suburb's southern edge, and the shoreline is the single feature the record sets against the name. The rest is street after street.
A visitor navigating here works from the lake northwards, because whatever built markers the city keeps are recorded under Wollongong rather than under this suburb.
What is the history of Berkeley?
Berkeley turns up in the record undated. The entry places it among Wollongong's southern suburbs, on the northern shore of Lake Illawarra, and gives the 2021 census as the one dated point in the account. That is the extent of the paper trail.
Whatever settlement grew along this stretch of Lake Illawarra before it carried the name did so without a charter, a first building or a founding event surviving into the record kept in New South Wales.
Where is Berkeley?
Lake Illawarra washes Berkeley's southern edge, and the suburb runs back from that shore into the southern reaches of Wollongong.
Common questions
What is the best area to stay in Berkeley?
Berkeley: waking up on the northern shore of Lake Illawarra. Wollongong: the hotel desks a Lake Illawarra suburb cannot supply.
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More areas in Wollongong
Updated August 2026