Central Coast, NSW
lakeside · retro · cafe-y · laid-back
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Drive to the coast
4 min
By road
Nearest major hospital
5 min
By road
Airport access
1h 30m
By road
Schools access
Excellent
Average daytime temp
22.4°C
Rainfall
Moderate rainfall
Long Jetty has a distinctly suburban Central Coast rhythm, but the lakefront and retro strip stop it from feeling generic. About 6,700 people live here, the median age is 45 and population has grown by roughly 6% since 2016. The town has excellent access to shops, schools and healthcare, with a major hospital only a few minutes away, so ordinary life is easy to manage locally.
The long jetties on Tuggerah Lake, the Coast to Lake walk and the revived Savoy cinema give the area a recognisable identity, while cafés and older shopfronts add more character than you might expect from a coastal suburb. Housing sits around a $1.1 million median and three-bedroom rents near $700 a week.
The ocean is only a few minutes away, but Long Jetty itself is more lakeside than beachfront, which changes the feel compared with Terrigal or Avoca. From here, the Sydney drive is about 1 hour 30 minutes away and the airport similar, useful for occasional access but still a substantial daily trip.
There is little quiet rural space and the area remains built-up. Long Jetty suits people who want services and a social local strip near the coast without paying for direct beach frontage or relying on a tourist-centred town economy.
6 photos
Long Jetty tends to click with people who want cafés, creative businesses, walking and water nearby but do not need a surf beach at the front door. Professionals, couples and families still have strong services around them. Its retro, local atmosphere brings social energy without making the area feel like a major visitor strip.
Quiet and rural space are limited, so this is not an escape into nature. The coast is close but not on the doorstep in the same way as Terrigal or Avoca Beach. Sydney is around 1 hour 30 minutes away, which is useful for access but still a demanding regular commute.
Walk to the end of Long Jetty on Tuggerah Lake
Follow the Coast to Lake Walk
Visit the Savoy in its original 1950s movie theatre
More from Londoner in Sydney
Looking for things to on the Central Coast? Look no further than a visit to Long Jetty in NSW. We couldn’t believe the amount of times we’ve driven through the Central Coast and yet we hadn’t ever heard of Long Jetty until a few years ago.
Read the guideMedian house price
$1,100,000
about the same as the NSW median
Median attached price (townhouse/apartment)
$718,000
Median weekly rent (3-bed house)
$700
≈ $3,033/month
Houses here typically sell from $965,000 to $1,350,000 (25th–75th percentile).
Attached properties typically sell from $611,000 to $870,000.
Sourced from NSW Department of Communities and Justice · January - March 2026 quarter
Healthcare access
Excellent
Shopping & everyday services
Excellent
10+ shopping centres within 20km — a real retail hub
Internet connection
Fixed line
Plus 91 more within 20km — showing the 8 closest.
Job market by industry
Healthcare — 13%
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 Terrigal and Avoca Beach.
Long Jetty (SAL 12387) · 2021 Census
Older than the country as a whole: 23.9% are 65 or over against 17.2% nationally, and 15.9% are children against 18.2%. Among households, couples without children outnumber couples with them (39.3% of families against 33%), and renting is well above the national rate, at 40.9% of dwellings against 30.6%. Lone-person households are more common than average (37.1% against 25.6%).
Population
6,736
Population growth
+6.2%
The Entrance (SA2 102021053)
Median age
45 years
Labour force participation
52.2%
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
$665
Per week · ≈ $34,580/year
Median family income
$1,684
Per week
Median household income
$1,201
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
56.2%
Rented
40.9%
Born in Australia
80.5%
Born overseas
12.9%
Doesn't sum to 100% — people who didn't state a birthplace are excluded rather than redistributed.