Tempe, NSW 2044

Riverside suburb of about 1.85 km² lying 9 km south of the Sydney CBD on the northern bank of the Cooks River, separated from Sydney Airport by the Alexandra Canal (Sheas Creek). Small and compact — just 3,550 residents at the 2021 census, 63.1% born in Australia with the next-largest birthplaces North Macedonia (3.4%), Vietnam (3.4%), England (3.3%), New Zealand (2.1%) and Greece (1.9%), and 67.0% speaking only English at home — the suburb mixes heritage streetscapes around its 1884 railway station and Griffiths Street with houses, older walk-up units, pockets of commercial and light-industrial use along the Princes Highway, the Tempe Hotel pub and the giant IKEA store. Its industrial past survives in the colloquial name 'Tempe Tip', now applied to a Salvation Army charity store on Bellevue Street after the old landfill on the site of former clay quarries that fed St Peters' brick kilns. Once a working-class, multicultural enclave, it now attracts buyers priced out of Marrickville and Newtown who want a river-flanked, railway-served address a short ride from the city.

At a Glance

Transport

Tempe railway station, on Griffiths Street, is a heritage-listed station opened 15 October 1884 on the Illawarra line, 6.84 km from Central; it is served by T4 Eastern Suburbs & Illawarra Line services to Bondi Junction and to Cronulla, Waterfall and Helensburgh — the T8 Airport & South line does not stop at Tempe. The Princes Highway runs through the suburb north towards the city and south towards Arncliffe and Rockdale, and buses along the highway corridor (commercial area routes such as the 422 Kogarah–Central service) link Tempe with the CBD and St George district.

Schools

Tempe Public School — NSW government primary school within the suburb (NSW Department of Education school site, tempe-p.schools.nsw.gov.au). Tempe High School — NSW government co-educational dual-modality school (partially academically selective, partially comprehensive), located in Tempe.

Shopping & Amenities

Tempe's commercial area runs along the Princes Highway and includes IKEA Tempe at 634–726 Princes Highway, described as the largest IKEA in the Southern Hemisphere — the store sits within Tempe's own boundaries, with the commercial and light-industrial strip continuing north into Sydenham and St Peters. The Tempe Hotel pub at 735 Princes Highway offers a restaurant, sports bar and beer garden (Tripadvisor listing; pub directories). The village-scale retail near the station is supplemented by the Salvation Army store colloquially known as 'Tempe Tip' on Bellevue Street, and local places of worship include Tempe Uniting Church and the Al Hijrah Mosque at 45 Station Street.

Parks & Outdoors

The Cooks River forms Tempe's southern boundary, lined with parkland: Tempe Recreation Reserve, managed by Inner West Council, is a riverside spot for sports, picnics and walks, and the Tempe Saltmarsh wetland on its south-western end is a restored former airport-spoil site within the Cooks River wetland corridor. The old 'Tempe Tip' landfill site was redeveloped into extended parkland, and the river foreshore links into the Cooks River walking and cycling corridor that runs along the suburb's edge. Tempe Reserve is a riverfront park with sports fields and dog areas beside the Cooks River (parksnearme directory).

Property Market

The median house price in Tempe was around $1,810,000 (median house price, CoreLogic via YIP, 43 sales over the past 12 months, +6.94% annual growth); realestate.com.au's 12-month sold median was $1,682,500 and PropertyValue/CoreLogic matched the ~$1.8M figure (43 sales) — trackers span roughly $1.68–1.81M (mid-2026). See our full Sydney property price map for how the suburb compares across the city. Tempe's housing market is house-dominated and thin: the 2021 census counted 3,550 residents and CoreLogic recorded just 5 unit sales in 12 months, so most trackers do not publish a unit median. House medians cluster around $1.7–1.8M across 2025–26 trackers, reflecting a suburb of mostly modest federation/workers' cottages and 20th-century homes rather than prestige stock. Historically significant: Harry Triguboff — later founder of Meriton — built his first-ever block of eight units in Smith Street, Tempe, in 1963.

New Developments

IKEA Tempe at 634–726 Princes Highway — the largest IKEA in the Southern Hemisphere — anchors the Princes Highway commercial corridor and drives much of the suburb's retail traffic. Cooks River precinct renewal — Inner West Council has restored the Tempe Saltmarsh wetland on the reclaimed airport-spoil site at the south-western end of Tempe Recreation Reserve as part of the Cooks River wetland corridor, alongside ongoing river-foreshore upgrades. Landfill-to-parkland legacy — the former 'Tempe Tip' (clay quarries used for landfill) was redeveloped into extended parkland, the largest such transformation in the suburb's modern history. Beyond these, Tempe's 1.85 km² area and heritage streetscapes limit large projects; development is mostly small-scale infill along the Princes Highway and near the station, tracked via Inner West Council DAs.

Jobs & Local Economy

Retail and light industry along the Princes Highway strip are Tempe's main local employers, anchored by IKEA Tempe (the largest IKEA in the Southern Hemisphere) with the commercial/light-industrial corridor continuing north toward Sydenham and St Peters. The T4 line puts Central roughly 15–20 minutes away, making the Sydney CBD the dominant workplace for many residents, and Sydney Airport's employment precinct sits just across the Alexandra Canal on Tempe's doorstep.

Nearby Suburbs

Marrickville, Sydenham, St Peters, Wolli Creek, Earlwood

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:

• Wikipedia — Tempe railway station
• 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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