"It's really hard for us in Ward 3," Ms Whittaker said.

"It always has been for some reason. I guess it's just very different demographics. I spent most of my life living in Bulli and then I moved down here about eight years ago and live in Port Kembla.

"So it's vastly different landscapes."

Ms Whittaker said campaigning in the south had always been hard for the Greens due to the lower level of support, but felt with Ms Stuart as a councillor people might see the value of the party.

"There's the issue of having the resources - we've never really had a big number of volunteers who live in Ward 3," Ms Whittaker said.

"Most of our really committed volunteers live in Ward 1, so that's a challenge campaigning in Ward 3, getting people to jump on board.

"But I'm hoping now with Deidre elected, and obviously I live down here, that we'll get more people to help us campaign for next time.

"We'll keep building, that's going to be one of our goals to just keep building and organising down there."

Ms Whittaker didn't feel it will be an issue representing Ward 1 in the city's north while living in Port Kembla. "I'm really connected to Ward 1 having spent most of my life there," she said.

"I wouldn't have run if I didn't feel like I knew the area really well and spent a lot of time there.

"There was an opportunity to run. Mithra [Cox] wasn't going to run again. We wanted someone to be in that safer seat that was going to do the work and keep building and turning up and have the time to commit to it.

"So I took that opportunity."

Story by Glen Humphries in the Illawarra Mercury, 17 September 2024.