If there's water over the road
Don't drive into floodwater. RACQ's rule is if it's flooded, forget it: water deeper than the bottom of the car door can float the car away. If your car has already sat in floodwater, don't try to start it, because water in the engine can hydraulic lock it. A flooded hybrid or electric car must not be started at all. Ring your insurer and have it towed.
Figtree's roads and hills
The highway and the motorway
The Princes Highway runs through Figtree into Wollongong, with a small shopping area at the O'Brien's Road junction and another further north near the motorway entrance. The Masters Road interchange has no northbound exit, so coming home from Dapto or the south, you leave the motorway somewhere else.
O'Brien's Road
O'Brien's Road, the old pass that meets the highway in Figtree, was built by subscription in 1821, and the fig tree the suburb is named after stood at its junction with the highway until 1996.
Houses on the slopes
Figtree Heights sits a little above the rest of the suburb, and houses climb the side of Cobbler's Hill towards Unanderra. A mobile mechanic needs level ground off the road, so mention a steep driveway when you ask for one.
August 1998
On 18 August 1998 Wollongong recorded 316 mm of rain, and Figtree was one of the worst-hit suburbs; the State Emergency Service rescued residents from the caravan park.
Buying a used car after a flood
Transport for NSW says many flood-damaged cars are written off, but some aren't, and they can turn up at auction or in a private sale. RACQ has warned it can take up to six months for rust or corrosion to show in a water-damaged car.
So if you're buying around Figtree after heavy rain, have a mechanic look under the seats, behind the dash, in the glovebox and the spare wheel well, and at the electrical connectors before you pay. Pre-purchase car inspection in Wollongong covers what else to check.
Our take
For routine servicing in Figtree, we'd go by the book and keep the invoices together. If the car has ever been in floodwater, we'd say so up front, so the mechanic checks the brakes, the wiring and the oil for water before anything else.