Kiama is not singing the Blues any more
Best of all (from my point of view) when I asked directions to the nearest fish and chip shop instead of getting the usual blank stares I was told which shop offered the largest portions of chips.
Although it is about 150 km from central Sydney, it is only two hours on the train and you can use the Opal card. The trip seemed to cost me virtually nothing.
Kiama is currently bedding down as a tourist centre and dormitory town (people who visit tend to want to live there) but it has a long history of heavy industry. This has resulted in the creation of interesting rock formations, probably worth a visit but I didn't get there.
The stuff that was being extracted was blue metal. This sounds like some product of the nuclear industry, but is actually the basic building block for roads. Australia has a lot of roads.
Click for next image.
Jonathan Brind