Sutherland Shire

Summary: Relatively tiny and subdued, and prominently green and bushy, Loftus on the southern end of Sutherland Shire is a fairly bare-bones suburb that’s oriented around offering roomy housing, train connectivity, peace & quiet – and not much else.

It’s almost entirely reliant on its proximity to neighbouring Engadine & Sutherland for services and retail, with only a tiny strip of boutique storefronts and a couple of educational facilities in terms of amenities. In return, you get a highly peaceful and safe streetscape with close proximity to large-scale greenery, and immediate access to a large arterial road.

With a only minimal dining & shopping scene to speak of, its main benefit involves being able to obtain a detached, freestanding home for a more reasonable price by Sydney standards – and enjoying a train-based CBD commute with the guaranteed prospect of always getting a seat in the morning. If peace and price are your two main concerns, Loftus certainly delivers; however in recent times its house prices have climbed along with the rest of Sydney.
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Summary: Having undergone a fairly significant central facelift in recent years while still retaining its surrounding character, Kirrawee in Sutherland Shire is a suburb in which the drastic changes will be immediately obvious for those who haven’t visited for several years. Its main inner hub has been massively modernised and provides a concentration of new, slick housing and retail, while its external streets still offer diverse housing both large and small as well as pretty bush-style greenery.

It fares well in terms of transport connections by both road and rail – although the road side of things are under increased stress and stuck in “catch-up” mode for the time being. It also provides a surprisingly good array of dining and boutique spots for food and drink that couple with its quality education offerings, opportunities for employment, and safe and well-kept overall streetscape to make for a versatile and appealing suburb that can cater to multiple budget levels and life stages. Read Review

Summary: One for those who like a little extra room to move – without being a wasteland lacking in amenities – Menai in Sutherland Shire provides a more reasonably-priced chance at a larger freestanding home. This comes without the extra fee for having a train station that multiple other suburbs in the region have tacked on. Both dotted with and surrounded by bushland, it’s a place where buildings and houses have a wider footprint in general, being mostly built out horizontally instead of vertically.

Its combination of multiple shopping centres and increasing hubs for dining combines with its array of educational opportunities to make for solid diversity for families as well. Distance from the city is a required sacrifice of living here, and while its fringing bushland offers walking opportunities, it has had issues with exposure to fires in the past. It’s also best as a base for those who can work either in the Western Suburbs or elsewhere in the Shire or southern Sydney, with owning a car basically essential for daily life. Read Review

Summary: Balancing the space and peaceful appeal of Sutherland Shire with one of southern Sydney’s most concentrated hubs of amenities, Miranda strikes a fairly even balance of the busy versus the serene. Its solid public transport connectivity via both road and rail combine with its sheer variety of housing types – on both the high and low end of the economic scale – to make for a good variety of options for daily life.

It’s increasingly becoming too busy for its own good however due to rapidly increasing high-density construction, making both traffic and parking ongoing issues. Its station and social housing areas combine to contribute to the odd crime issue as well, making for a suburb in which its central section is a massive contrast to its external residential areas. These offer much more roomy, relaxed and greenery-draped living – although at some increasingly eye-watering prices.
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Summary: At its core, Gymea ranks as the most versatile of the Sutherland Shire suburbs, with a solid across-the-board balance of all the benefits we look for in an enjoyable place to live. Its central location relative to the rest of its neighbours combine with its train connectivity and immediate access to main roads to make it highly accessible, while its diversity of housing types make for a place not only the highly wealthy can afford.

Its dining and cafe scene has grown to the point where it’s not only nice, it’s – dare we say – actually trendy, with a very good array of amenities despite some awkward parking in order to access them. This is balanced out further by its solid array of schools, leafy surrounds and actual options for adult entertainment to make for a Shire suburb that feels far less “boring” than many of its peers, while still not yet being overdeveloped. Its lack of parkland and some traffic issues are its only real downsides; this is one of our favourite suburbs in Sydney in terms of balanced places to live. Read Review

Summary: A neat and tidy pocket of upmarket Sutherland Shire living, Woolooware is a pretty, village-type suburb traditionally home to larger and impressive homes that’s gradually seeing more pockets of dense development crop up. With plenty of greenery, easy access to beaches nearby, and a wide range of public facilities and spaces oriented specifically at families and sports, it’s also an area in which property is typically tightly-held long-term by residents with no real desire to leave.

This is a largely peaceful suburb with adequate (if fairly minimal) amenities that still provides the benefit of train connectivity through to the Sydney CBD – a boon for a suburb of its size. It’s starting to see some “spillover” effects from higher density developments both within and from neighbouring suburbs via some increased congestion, but otherwise its combination of nature, schools, safety and proximity to appealing spots nearby make it highly desirable for families in particular – who can afford it. Read Review

Summary: A sprawling, hilly and bush-draped suburb deep-ish in Sutherland Shire, Engadine is a land of Aussie flags flying proudly in front lawns, large and roomy split-level homes built on the hillside, and a comprehensive central area home to a very solid array of amenities. While it lies a fairly hefty distance from the Sydney CBD, its rail connections help alleviate this somewhat, and the trade off it offers in terms of larger home sizes for better prices than the Sydney average may just be worth it for some.

This is a highly family-friendly, neighbourly, and outdoor-oriented place with an array of schools and childcare options along with ample sporting fields and facilities; add in expansive National Park right nearby, and being outside here is an enjoyable prospect. It’s fairly average – though improving – for dining however, and the drive up to the city can be a killer. It’s also much more ideal for families vs. the younger crowd in search of more diverse entertainment options. Read Review

Summary: A suburb for those after a chance at decent-sized living space without compromising on the best possible public transport connectivity to Sydney city, Sutherland is the key access hub of its namesake Shire. It boasts a good mix of home sizes and types, with some lower-priced options due to its abundance of older builds and continual new higher-density modern blocks being added all the time.

It’s not completely “beautiful” as a whole but is mostly green, spacious and has a number of pretty parts, and its central area offers a very solid selection of small-scale local services and food options. It has a handful of slight safety issues and isn’t the most lively of places for nightlife, but is quite well-balanced overall. Read Review

Summary: If you’re the type who prefers palm trees over gum trees and spends most of your non-work time wearing lycra, then Cronulla may just be the suburb for you. A highly scenic, nature-oriented seaside suburb with multiple top-notch beaches, life in Cronulla is all about being outdoors and active; it’s essentially a waste to live here otherwise.

With a central hub teeming with many newly-added cafes and eateries and a pretty robust nightlife scene, Cronulla also has slices of extremely high-end living with quiet back streets that cost a very pretty penny. Read Review

Summary: One of the “gateways” to Sutherland Shire, Como is an upmarket, green suburb which sits perched overlooking the Georges and Woronora Rivers, offering the chance at some impeccable water views. This is a land of boat ownership and outdoor enjoyment, with some excellent public spaces that are a boon for kids and pets alike. It’s pretty, green, quiet and safe, however it’s notably lacking in amenities for shopping and dining, and its distance from main arterial roads offsets its train station’s connectivity to the city a little. It’s also not cheap. Read Review