Historic bayside village on the northern headland of Botany Bay, about 14 km south-east of the Sydney CBD in the City of Randwick, notable for the old military outpost at Bare Island and the Kamay Botany Bay National Park. Named for the French navigator Comte de Lapérouse — whose ships arrived in Botany Bay days after the First Fleet in January 1788 — La Perouse is one of only a few Sydney suburbs with a French name. The suburb clusters around a small historic foreshore precinct: the Lapérouse Monument obelisk (1825), the former cable station housing the La Perouse Museum, the heritage-listed Bare Island fort reached by footbridge, and a few cafes and restaurants close to Frenchmans Bay. Bare Island Fort (built 1881-1889), connected to the mainland by a footbridge and open by guided tour only, served as a war veterans' home from 1912 to 1963 before becoming a museum and tourist attraction. La Perouse also carries deep Aboriginal heritage — the heritage-listed La Perouse Mission Church at 46 Adina Avenue anchors one of Sydney's oldest urban Aboriginal communities, and 32.2% of the suburb's 366 residents (2021 census) identified as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander. It is a genuine tourist destination: visitors come for the fort, museum, beaches and views, the Blak Markets (First Nations arts-and-culture market) are staged at the La Perouse/Bare Island precinct, and the long-running 'Snake Man' outdoor reptile show performed at The Loop, the old tram turnaround, on Sunday afternoons.
At a Glance
| Field | Details |
|---|---|
| Region | Eastern Suburbs |
| Council (LGA) | Randwick City Council |
| Postcode | 2036 |
| Distance to Sydney CBD | Around 40-50 minutes by bus from the Anzac Parade terminus to the Sydney CBD:… |
| Median house price | ~$2.2M (median house value, Cotality automated valuation as at 31 Jul 2026) — with only 3 sales in the preceding 12 months the sale-based medians are unreliable; Allhomes' sale-based median of ~$3.52M rests on a handful of mostly price-withheld transactions (mid-2026) |
| Median unit price | $1,738,513 |
| Typical rent | ~$1,200/week |
Transport
Bus-only suburb: La Perouse is the south-eastern terminus of bus routes along the Anzac Parade corridor and has no railway station — the tram line that once ran from the city to the La Perouse balloon loop was closed in 1961, and today's Transdev John Holland bus route 394X follows the old tram route. Route 394 runs La Perouse to the City (Circular Quay) via Maroubra and Kingsford, and the 394X is the express variant to the City (Museum), both terminating at Anzac Pde Terminus, La Perouse (busmaps; moovit; thetimey). Route 393 links neighbouring Little Bay with the city along the same corridor, and buses connect to Maroubra Junction and the wider eastern-suburbs network for onward travel. A ferry link is in the works: wharves are being built at La Perouse (and at Kurnell on the southern headland) for a proposed ferry service across Botany Bay.
Schools
La Perouse Public School — NSW government primary school (K-6) at 8-18 Yarra Road, La Perouse, serving the local community. There is no high school within La Perouse or its immediately adjoining suburbs; secondary students travel further up the Anzac Parade corridor.
Shopping & Amenities
The village centre is the historic La Perouse precinct at the end of Anzac Parade — the old tram turnaround known as The Loop — with a handful of cafes and restaurants gathered around Frenchmans Bay. The La Perouse Museum, housed in the former cable station building (the site of the 1882 telegraph cable link), displays maps, scientific instruments and relics recovered from the French explorers' voyages, and sits within the museum precinct of the Kamay Botany Bay National Park that Randwick City Council is finalising a lease to manage. The heritage-listed La Perouse Mission Church (46 Adina Avenue) is the community church of the La Perouse Aboriginal community. The New South Wales Golf Club — a links-style course facing both Botany Bay and the Tasman Sea — occupies the suburb's ocean edge, and Congwong Beach with its car park by the museum is the local swimming spot (NSW National Parks).
Parks & Outdoors
Bare Island — heritage-listed 1880s fortification (NSW State Heritage Register) on a small sandstone islet about 30 metres offshore, linked by a footbridge and visitable by guided tour; it is the most popular scuba-diving site in NSW, with snorkelling and dive sites extending past 19 metres depth around the island. The suburb sits within the La Perouse section of Kamay Botany Bay National Park, with walking tracks from the museum area out to Henry Head and Cape Banks — Cape Banks carries the Fort Banks battery and commands views across Botany Bay to Kurnell and Captain Cook's landing place. Congwong Beach and Little Congwong Beach are sheltered, calm coves on the bay side, protected from ocean swell and popular for family swimming, snorkelling around the rocks (seagrass meadows attract squid, wrasse and the occasional turtle) and picnics, with Frenchmans Bay nearby (NSW National Parks; InTheBeach). Scuba diving around the La Perouse peninsula is considered among the best in NSW.
Property Market
The median house price in La Perouse was around ~$2.2M (median house value, Cotality automated valuation as at 31 Jul 2026) — with only 3 sales in the preceding 12 months the sale-based medians are unreliable; Allhomes' sale-based median of ~$3.52M rests on a handful of mostly price-withheld transactions (mid-2026). See our full Sydney property price map for how the suburb compares across the city. One of Sydney's smallest and most tightly held property markets: only 366 residents at the 2021 census, 192 properties in the suburb and just 3 sales in the 12 months to Jul 2026. Roughly 91% of the suburb's 1.8 km² is parkland (8 parks), much of it Kamay Botany Bay National Park or heritage-protected foreshore, so saleable housing stock is scarce and medians swing widely between trackers: Cotality's AVM put the median house value at $2,219,257 (31 Jul 2026) while Allhomes' sale-based median was about $3.52M on very few sales, many price-withheld. House values fell about 4.3% over 5 years on Cotality's AVM while the handful of units rose ~46.7%. Buyers are paying for position — headland, bay views and proximity to the national park — rather than for a large local market.
New Developments
Development is minimal by design: most of the suburb lies within Kamay Botany Bay National Park, and the La Perouse precinct, Bare Island Fort, Mission Church and other structures are heritage-listed, so new residential building is negligible. The main changes are infrastructure and management rather than housing: wharves are being built at La Perouse (and Kurnell) for a planned ferry service across Botany Bay, and Randwick City Council is finalising a lease to take over the La Perouse museum precinct (former cable station, Macquarie Watchtower, La Perouse Monument and Pere Receveur Tomb) from the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service.
Jobs & Local Economy
Tourism, hospitality and visitor services are the suburb's economic heartbeat — the museum precinct, Bare Island tours, the cafes and restaurants around the historic village, the Blak Markets and the NSW Golf Club all draw day-trippers. Randwick City Council and NSW National Parks manage the headland parks and heritage sites, and the New South Wales Golf Club employs greenskeeping and clubhouse staff. With only 366 residents there is no large local employment base — most workers commute out, with residents predominantly in professional and managerial occupations.
Nearby Suburbs
Phillip Bay, Chifley, Little Bay
Sources & method
Researched 4 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:
Corrections are welcome — if something here is out of date or wrong, tell us and we will fix it.
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