Drummoyne Suburb Review

High-end and historic, Drummoyne is a land of yacht clubs, custom classic cars and an improving dining scene.

Summary: Fringed by water and offering impeccable views throughout, Drummoyne is a scenic part of Sydney where old and new wealth collide. If you’ve ever wanted to feel poor, this is the suburb to visit, as multi-level mansions and freestanding homes on large blocks dominate with some great angles of the Parramatta River.

It’s highly decked out with amenities along Victoria Road and has pleasant public spaces, while its location provides centralised access to other parts of Sydney. Price and traffic are its main negatives, but it’s otherwise a highly desirable place to live.

Key stats

One of the most immediately noticeable signs of the age of any Sydney suburb is the quantity of chimneys visible on many of its houses.

Drummoyne’s no exception here, and its historic leanings are obvious throughout – much of parts of it are iconic Sydney red-brick and sandstone, albeit on a large scale than other old suburbs.

Think grand old homes with custom name plates that are impeccably well-maintained, and you’ve got a decent idea of Drummoyne’s historic streetscape. It’s largely an “old money” suburb, and it shows.

Drummoyne has always been a wealthy part of Sydney, but it’s not until you go back and individually mentally categorise each property that the enormity of the money concentrated here comes into view. Add in its encirclement by water and the great views this offers, and it’s not hard to see why it’s a physically desirable place to live.

Unlike some of Sydney’s other wealthy suburbs however, Drummoyne isn’t merely some boring, sterile and isolated cluster of mansions with not much else going on.

There’s quite a lot happening here, both on land and water, and both its central location as a thoroughfare for traffic and its good helping of amenities and attractions make it more lively than you might think.

This has both pros and cons that come with it.

Plenty of Positives

On the plus side, Drummoyne offers a huge amount of built-up retail and services along its main artery of Victoria Road and dotted elsewhere throughout.

Multiple major supermarkets (IGA, Coles, ALDI and its Farmers market) all provide multiple options for daily shopping needs, while medical clinics, car washes, bottle shops, furniture and lighting stores and much more make for little need to go elsewhere.

Its brand outlets are a shopping drawcard for those seeking a bargain on name goods, and while it’s not widely known as a dining hotspot, Drummoyne does offer an increasingly-great selection of restaurants of varying cuisines as well as a solid cafe scene.

Several of these combine with the suburb’s iconic water views to make for memorable dining experiences, although they come with appropriate pricetags as well. When in doubt, simply hop over to the historic Oxford Hotel for a drink in a unique atmosphere, a game of pool, or a bite to eat.

It’s not a particularly “exciting” suburb, but there’s enough to get by and keep it from ever feeling dead.

Wraparound water views make Drummoyne highly desirable

Attraction-wise, there’s plenty of reasons to visit here as well. Its abundance of waterfront parks offer exceptional spots for a picnic or a bench seat with a view, with iconic Birkenhead Point long a popular vantage point for views out over to Snapper and Spectacle Islands as well as the rest of the harbour.

Walking or jogging down by the waterfront along Henry Marine Drive provides another angle (avoid driving here though), while the Drummoyne Oval Pavillion makes for a solid venue for taking in a mid-scale sporting event.

In addition, while Drummoyne doesn’t have a train station nearby, it’s still not too difficult to access. Multiple bus lines run to and from here extremely frequently, while Drummoyne Wharf offers (semi-regular) water transport both towards Parramatta and back over to Circular Quay. It’s also highly accessible by road with two main arteries running through.

This access and Drummoyne’s position combine to make it quite busy. For a “prestige” suburb, it’s probably a bit busier than you’d like as a resident as it’s used by a huge quantity of people to get from A to B, and visitors are drawn to its regularly for its attractive public spaces.

“For a “prestige” suburb, it’s probably a bit busier than you’d like as a resident.”

Traffic here is a significant issue as heapings of people are funnelled through Drummoyne on a daily basis heading both down into the city or up to the north shore suburbs like Macquarie Park for work. Lyons Road and Victoria Road are perpetually packed with cars both during peak working hours and on weekends, making getting out elsewhere a chore.

This has also had spillover effects of making its back streets less quiet as well, as people look to sneak around alternate routes to avoid the main traffic backlog. It’s a shame, as without traffic it could theoretically offer a quick 10 minute drive into Town Hall and surrounds.

Plane noise is also a bit of an issue here, which dims its pristine environment somewhat. Drummoyne sits under the arrivals flight path for aircraft to Sydney Airport, and while they’re not as frequently-trafficked as some of the worse Inner West suburbs, it’s still pretty noticeable.

Property-wise, Drummoyne is dotted with some massive and gorgeous colonial-style homes and more modern-style mansions, including some truly palatial residences overlooking the water. St George Crescent in particular showcases an extreme concentration of wealth build up high on land ensuring unobscured views.

These are mixed up a bit with classy, vertically-built terraces and some high-density options as well that make its residential landscape actually quite diverse.

Unlike our main issue mentioned in our Concord review, to its credit Drummoyne does offer home types both large and smaller, including a concentration of high-density apartment blocks on its north-east side. While the largest homes do skew the suburb’s prices somewhat, this is still by no means a cheap place to live.

Buying a freestanding home here will have a barrier to entry of at least $1.7 million, while anything larger can quickly jump up accordingly.

Its range of apartment rentals means that it is possible to land a decent 2-bedroom rental apartment for around the $550 mark, although these are in older buildings – but you can still luck out with some quality views for your money.

For families with money, Drummoyne certainly delivers if you’ve got the coin to spare. It’s safe in general with low crime statistics, and its several levels of schooling combine with its great public parks – many of which are decked out with good playground equipment – to provide a good environment for children.

Pets are likewise well-serviced, as it’s very green with plenty of good walking tracks, a vet hospital, and plenty of nice scenery to incentivise their owners to take their pup for regular walks.

The Verdict

Drummoyne offers one of the widest array of pleasant water views of any suburb in Sydney, and its layout means there’s multiple great public spaces from which to soak this all in.

It’s got a great balance of shops/restaurants/cafes that doesn’t skew too strongly in one direction, and there’s just enough diversity in housing to make living here viable for a range of demographics.

For those with plenty of money, there’s also some truly gorgeous properties on offer and the “boating life” it offers courtesy of its marinas and yacht clubs is hard to beat.

It’s centrally-located, although its road/traffic issues make this a suburb in which you’d probably rather not be commuting too far away or end up dealing with a draining trip on a daily basis.

In all, Drummoyne represents a solid balance between the classier, laid-back atmospheres of some of Sydney’s quieter and more isolated wealthy suburbs with all the amenities, benefits and connectivity of more busy and built-up areas as well.

It’s thus very versatile – to go along with undeniably pretty, and it certainly has character and enough unique attributes to make it stand out.