Monterey, NSW 2217

Small bayside suburb 15 km south of the Sydney CBD in the St George area, on the western shore of Botany Bay with Lady Robinsons Beach and Cook Park along its eastern border and Scarborough Park (with its pond) along the west. Monterey was officially declared a suburb only in 1972, carved out of Brighton-Le-Sands and Ramsgate as the area filled in, and its streets carry Californian names — Hollywood, Monterey, Pasadena, Culver — which is also why some locals originally opposed the 'too American' name. It is mostly residential with a small group of shops on Chuter Avenue, and at the 2021 census it had 4,619 residents — 57.0% born in Australia, with Greece (5.9%) and Egypt (4.1%) the next most common birthplaces and Greek spoken at home by 16.7% of households.

At a Glance

Transport

Bus-based: Monterey has no railway station; the suburb's bayfront is served by buses along The Grand Parade — including the 303 route that runs south from Redfern/Mascot all the way along Lady Robinsons Beach to Dolls Point (24 Hours Layover). The nearest railway stations are in the immediately adjoining suburbs: Kogarah to the west and Rockdale to the north-west, both on the T4 Illawarra line and both roughly 2 km from the beachfront.

Schools

There is no government school within Monterey itself — the NSW government school dataset lists no Monterey school — so students attend primaries in the adjoining suburbs, notably Ramsgate Public School (Kindergarten to Year 6) on Chuter Avenue in neighbouring Ramsgate, a short walk from Monterey's shopping corner (NSW government school dataset). The nearest government high schools are in the adjacent suburb of Kogarah — Kogarah High School and St George Girls High School (NSW government school dataset).

Shopping & Amenities

Monterey's local centre is a small group of shops on Chuter Avenue near the Scarborough Street intersection — the shopping corner the suburb grew around when its post office opened there. The beachfront Grand Parade promenade fronts Lady Robinsons Beach, with Cook Park and its playground directly opposite the avenue, and the much larger cafe, restaurant and shopping strip of Brighton-Le-Sands — including eateries lining the beach — sits immediately over Monterey's northern boundary in the adjacent suburb (24 Hours Layover).

Parks & Outdoors

Lady Robinsons Beach runs along Monterey's eastern border, where the suburb's section of the beach — Monterey Beach, commencing at President Avenue and extending about 1 km south — is backed by a widened foreshore reserve with beachfront car parks. Monterey Baths, a tidal swimming enclosure on Monterey Beach, is one of the three council-managed bathing enclosures on Lady Robinsons Beach (Bayside Council; Ocean Pools NSW). Cook Park, the large grassy foreshore park with playground, barbecue facilities and benches on The Grand Parade, fronts the beach, while Scarborough Park — a large parkland with a pond along the suburb's western border — and Tanner Reserve are the other main green spaces.

Property Market

The median house price in Monterey was around $2,480,000 — median house price based on 16 sales over the past 12 months, down 8% year-on-year (realestate.com.au, retrieved Sep 2026); CoreLogic (via YIP) puts the median house price at $2,600,000 (25 sales) and OnTheHouse median value at $2,269,574 (mid-2026). See our full Sydney property price map for how the suburb compares across the city. Sales volumes are thin — 16 house sales in 12 months or 25 — so medians swing between trackers: $2.48M, $2.60M and $2.27M median value, with lower-end aggregators around $2.12M (Kalinovski). Units cluster near $0.92–0.95M against ~$815K on REA-style aggregators (Kalinovski). Rental yields are low and the market is dominated by owner-occupiers. Stock is a mix of post-war family homes on the quiet streets between Scarborough Park and the bay plus 1960s–70s walk-up unit blocks along The Grand Parade and Chuter Avenue, with no significant off-the-plan pipeline inside the suburb itself. 2021 census population 4,619.

New Developments

Monterey itself has no active off-the-plan projects — apartments.com.au lists no new apartments for sale within Monterey (retrieved Sep 2026) — and development activity is limited to incremental infill of its older house and walk-up unit stock. New apartment supply is instead coming up in the immediately adjoining suburbs, including Alara Apartments at 270 Rocky Point Road in Ramsgate and the Seychelles project in Brighton-Le-Sands, both marketed alongside Monterey listings.

Jobs & Local Economy

Local retail and hospitality around the Chuter Avenue shops and the Grand Parade beachfront anchor neighbourhood employment. The adjoining suburb of Brighton-Le-Sands supports a sizeable beachfront tourism, cafe and restaurant workforce, while the commercial town centres of neighbouring Kogarah and Rockdale add retail, health and professional jobs — St George Hospital in adjacent Kogarah being the area's principal public hospital and largest local employer (24 Hours Layover; South Eastern Sydney Local Health District). Many residents commute to professional jobs in the Sydney CBD.

Nearby Suburbs

Brighton-Le-Sands, Ramsgate Beach, Ramsgate, Kogarah, Rockdale

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:

• Transport for NSW
• NSW Government

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

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