Berowra Waters, NSW 2082

Berowra Waters is a remote riverside hamlet of 169 people (2021 census) on the banks of Berowra Creek, a tributary of the Hawkesbury River, about 40 km north of the Sydney CBD in Hornsby Shire. The settlement — known as Dust Hole Bay in its early days, when lime burners, timber-getters and fishermen were the first Europeans in the 1820s — straddles both banks of the creek, its steep bush-covered slopes dotted with acreage homes, and the two sides linked by the free Berowra Waters Ferry cable punt. It is best known for the Berowra Waters Inn, the Glenn Murcutt-designed waterside restaurant that helped lead Australia's fine-dining movement from the 1970s and still draws diners today, alongside the marina cafes, scenic walks and a saltwater pool that make it a long-standing tourist destination. Notable residents have included actress Cate Blanchett and her husband Andrew Upton. Residents are overwhelmingly older owner-occupiers — median age 56, 60-69 the dominant group, 96.7% owner-occupied — in a low-turnover market of bush and waterfront properties.

At a Glance

Transport

Berowra Waters has no railway station and no scheduled bus service; road access is by car only, via winding roads that descend steeply to each ferry landing — from the Pacific Highway/Berowra side on the east bank and from the Galston-Arcadia plateau on the west bank, the 1902 road from Arcadia to Berowra railway station having run through the settlement. The suburb is defined by its river crossing: the Berowra Waters Ferry, a free three-lane cable punt that operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week, carries cars and foot passengers between the two banks of Berowra Creek. The nearest railway station is Berowra on the Main Northern line, a few kilometres east on the Pacific Highway.

Schools

No school remains in Berowra Waters and the suburb has no school-age infrastructure — its 169 residents include few children. Families in the area are served by schools in immediately adjacent suburbs, chiefly Wideview Public School (NSW government) and St Bernard's Catholic Primary School in Berowra Heights, which borders Berowra Waters to the south across the creek.

Shopping & Amenities

The suburb's commercial life clusters around the ferry and marina on the creek: Berowra Waters Marina hosts the Water Vista Cafe, a waterside cafe serving fish and chips, burgers and coffee overlooking the moored boats, plus the 'What The Fish' fish cafe, and provides moorings, slipway and fuel-type services for the boating community (watervistacafe.com.au; berowrawatersmarina.com.au; firsttable.com.au). Upstream sits the Berowra Waters Inn — the Glenn Murcutt-designed, cliffside fine-dining restaurant on Berowra Creek that has operated since 1976, currently run as a degustation destination by chef Brian Geraghty and winner of Gourmet Traveller's 2025 Readers' Icon Award. The Dictionary of Sydney sums up the settlement's attractions as 'restaurants, marina, car ferry, scenic walks and salt water pool', and there is no supermarket or general-store retail precinct in the suburb (Dictionary of Sydney; berowrawatersmarina.com.au).

Parks & Outdoors

Berowra Creek frontage is the suburb's defining feature: a deep, tidal, bush-lined tributary of the Hawkesbury where the free ferry crosses and private moorings, boatsheds and water-access-only homes line the banks. The surrounding bush is part of Berowra Valley National Park — the Berowra Waters Ferry's Wikipedia article places the crossing within the 3,884-hectare park that follows the Berowra Creek valley on the Hornsby Plateau, and the park's walking tracks link Berowra and Berowra Waters. The Dictionary of Sydney records the settlement's scenic walks and a saltwater swimming pool among its attractions, and the marina supports boating, kayaking and fishing on the creek (Dictionary of Sydney; berowrawatersmarina.com.au).

Property Market

The median house price in Berowra Waters was around ~$1.4M (OnTheHouse/Cotality median house value of $1,414,312 as at 31 Jul 2026 — an AVM estimate on a very thin sales market) (mid-2026). See our full Sydney property price map for how the suburb compares across the city. Very thin, two-tier market: 267 properties spread over 14.7 km² of steep bush and waterfront land, with only 7 sales recorded in the 12 months to mid-2026. The OnTheHouse/Cotality AVM median of ~$1.4M (houses up 25.5% over five years on that measure) sits well below the $1.9M figure quoted by some trackers (Picki), while actual 2026 listings spanned roughly $850,000 for small water-access-only shacks (e.g. 26 Marramarra Creek, 30 Neverfail Bay) through $1.3-1.8M riverside homes to $2.75-3.0M for premium waterfront acreage at Coba Point (StMate). Recent public sale evidence is thin too — a 1-bedroom Marramarra Creek property sold around $653k in mid-2026 (StMate). Profile: median age 56, 96.7% owner-occupied, residents predominantly professionals; many properties are only reachable by boat or via the ferry.

New Developments

Minimal — there is no significant development pipeline: Berowra Waters is an established low-turnover suburb of steep, bush-covered acreage along Berowra Creek, where land constraints, parkland and services limitations keep activity to individual renovations and small infill. The suburb's only celebrated construction is historical — the Berowra Waters Inn, built to Glenn Murcutt's design in the late 1970s after restaurateurs Gay and Tony Bilson commissioned the architect for a landmark refit.

Jobs & Local Economy

Local employment is minimal and tourism/marine-based: the Berowra Waters Inn, the marina's cafes (Water Vista Cafe, What The Fish) and berthing/boating services are effectively the suburb's only workplaces, serving its long history as a tourist and day-trip destination (Dictionary of Sydney; berowrawatersmarina.com.au). Census-derived data shows residents work predominantly in professional occupations and, at 96.7% owner-occupation, almost all households are established owners — most working residents commute out by car, crossing the creek on the free ferry.

Nearby Suburbs

Berowra Heights, Cowan, Berrilee, Canoelands, Fiddletown, Milsons Passage

Sources & method

Researched 5 September 2026 from named public sources — census and government records, transport authorities, council and planning documents — plus published sales data. Where sources disagree on a figure, the guide says so rather than picking one.

Sources cited in this guide:

• Wikipedia — Berowra Waters
• Wikipedia — Berowra Waters Ferry
• Wikipedia — Berowra Heights
• Wikipedia — Berowra Valley National Park
• Dictionary of Sydney

Corrections are welcome — if something here is out of date or wrong, tell us and we will fix it.

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