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Life in the burbs

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People gather by a coffee truck on the southern headland at Avalon Beach to watch the sunrise.

There’s no other place I’d rather be than the ‘insular peninsula’

The area gets inundated by visitors at holiday time. I don’t mind. We get this wonderful place to ourselves for most of the year.

  • Vivien Robotham

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The Sydney Central Business District, Sydney Harbour and Eastern Suburbs and surrounds are seen on 18 February 2025, in Sydney, Australia from a commercial airliner. Picture - Sam Mooy / The Sydney Morning Herald

Life in the burbs

We’re celebrating Sydney’s suburbs and local writers have been penning pieces about the neighbourhoods they know best. Read all their stories here.

Sydenham.

Living here makes no sense at all, but I can’t get enough of it

Anyone who decides to live in Sydenham and complains about the noise really only has themselves to blame.

  • Nick Wallace

Looking for suburban bliss? You won’t find it here … mercifully

Sydney needs Darlinghurst. Even if it’s lost some of its bohemian edge, it was and is a remedy for everything that’s boring about Sydney.

  • Vince Sorrenti
Grace Lagan outside Haberfield cafe Happyfield – named Cafe of the Year in the 2024 Good Food Guide.

Once dubbed ‘slumless, laneless and publess’, my suburb now resembles a heritage theme park

Skyrocketing house prices have prevented all but the most affluent young families from moving in, and kept plenty of overgrown bambini from flying the nest.

  • Grace Lagan
Cammeray: Members of the Bronze team at the Cammeray Croquet Club play a match at the club in Cammeray.

My suburb, once a transit lane, has become a destination. Even for Nigella Lawson

When I was a kid, Cammeray was just a route to somewhere more interesting. Now the place is thriving, transformed by bars, fancy restaurants and trophy homes.

  • Michael Visontay
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The PBX1 barber shop in Wentworthville was named after the debut album of influential Punjabi rapper Sidhu Moose Wala, who was shot dead in 2022. 15th March 2026.

My suburb’s no place for pretenders, and it’s the reason I became a journo

The first thing you need to know about Wentworthville is how to pronounce it. There’s no “t”.

  • Brianna Parkins
A ferry in Balmain sets off for the next stop.

My suburb has caviar for pub grub and oodles of cavoodles but somehow keeps it real

This peninsula suburb is home, even if I’m a blow-in. At least my daughter can claim to be born and bred.

  • Chris Taylor
Bankstown residents gather most days to practise Chinese Tai Chi led by 90-year-old master Wang at Paul Keating park.

My suburb’s about to be transformed. But constant change is part of its DNA

As one of the most diverse suburbs in Australia, Bankstown is a place of feverish hope, full of lives built from scratch and cultures fiercely preserved.

  • Mostafa Rachwani