South Coast, NSW
foodie · polished · heritage · country
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Drive to the coast
10 min
By road
Nearest major hospital
5 min
By road
Airport access
1h 59m
By road
Schools access
Excellent
Average daytime temp
21.5°C
Rainfall
Wet
Berry is a small country town where the main street genuinely matters to daily life. Locals use the same compact centre that visitors come for, so cafés, restaurants, boutiques and food producers are not just weekend decoration; they are part of the town’s social rhythm.
The surrounding landscape is rural, yet the coast is only about ten minutes away, giving Berry a country base with easy beach access. It is an older, affluent community, with a median age of 57 and high home ownership, and the housing market reflects the demand: the median house price is about $1.62 million.
Change since 2016 has been modest, at roughly 6% since 2016, so the place feels established rather than rapidly expanding. Tourism is the main complication. Saturdays, holiday weekends and event periods can make a town of about 3,100 people feel far busier than its permanent population suggests.
Healthcare and schools are strong for a centre this small, which removes some of the usual compromises of a tree change. Sydney is around 2 hours 10 minutes away and the airport nearly two hours, so this is not a practical daily-commute proposition. The appeal is having a sociable, polished country town as your everyday base, with farmland and the South Coast close around it.
11 photos
Berry works well for people who like the idea of country living but still want cafés, restaurants, shops and a compact walkable centre nearby. Food-focused couples, families and people working remotely can have that mix with farmland and country scenery immediately around them. The overall feel is polished and social rather than sparse or isolated.
Tourism is heavy, so weekends and holiday periods can feel busy. The town is polished rather than secluded, and outdoor recreation is not as dominant as in many coastal or hinterland options. Sydney is still around 2 hours 15 minutes away, making regular commuting a substantial undertaking.
Stroll the heritage main street for boutiques and dining
Visit local markets and producers in the surrounding countryside
More from Londoner in Sydney
Spending the weekend away from Sydney or doing a day trip and looking for things to do in Berry on the South Coast? There’s much more to this beautiful town than a stop over to the Famous Berry Donut Van.
Read the guideMedian house price
$1,618,000
46% above the NSW median
Houses here typically sell from $1,243,000 to $2,170,000 (25th–75th percentile).
Sourced from NSW Department of Communities and Justice · January - March 2026 quarter
Healthcare access
Excellent
Shopping & everyday services
Good
4–9 shopping centres within 20km
Internet connection
Fixed line
Plus 19 more within 20km — showing the 8 closest.
Job market by industry
Healthcare — 12.3%
Largest share of local jobs
Employment figures cover this town's wider statistical region, not the town alone — you'll see the same figures for Bowral, Kangaroo Valley, Robertson, Huskisson and Ulladulla.
The score ranks this region against other regions for the same occupation, not against other jobs here — a low score means it isn't a regional stronghold for that field, not that there are no vacancies. Counts online job advertisements, so trades and farm work hired by word of mouth are undercounted, and outside capital cities this is published at a regional level larger than one town.
Berry (SAL 10321) · 2021 Census
Older than the country as a whole: 38.8% are 65 or over against 17.2% nationally, and 14.5% are children against 18.2%. Among households, couples without children outnumber couples with them (58.2% of families against 32.5%), and home ownership is high at 75.6% of dwellings against 65.9% nationally.
Population
3,098
Population growth
+6.2%
Berry - Kangaroo Valley (SA2 114011272)
Median age
57 years
Labour force participation
46.2%
Growth is measured across the wider area named under the figure, which can be a different size to the town.
Share of total population in each band — rounding means these won't land on exactly 100%.
Couples are a share of total families; lone-person households are a share of total households — different bases, not one breakdown.
Median personal income
$775
Per week · ≈ $40,300/year
Median family income
$2,050
Per week
Median household income
$1,495
Per week
Personal is one person's income; family and household cover everyone living together — a single-income household will show a lower household figure than its highest earner's personal one. Personal income also covers every resident aged 15 and over, retirees included, so it reads low in a town with an older population even where household income is solid.
Owner-occupied
75.6%
Rented
12.3%
Born in Australia
78.5%
Born overseas
16.5%
Doesn't sum to 100% — people who didn't state a birthplace are excluded rather than redistributed.