Warrawee, NSW 2074

Leafy, tightly held prestige suburb on Sydney's Upper North Shore, about 16-17 km north-west of the CBD in Ku-ring-gai Council. Warrawee is predominantly residential with almost no commercial activity - its railway station supports no shops or kiosk, which is uncommon on the Sydney train network - and it grew from the early 1900s as an exclusive residential enclave: blocks were kept at 1-4 acres, the form of houses was tightly controlled, and there were no shops, offices, post office or public school, a character developer Joseph Beresford Grant protected by buying up any site threatened by commercial use. The suburb is a showcase of grand period and architect-designed homes on large, garden-filled lots - heritage houses known by name rather than address, such as Pibrac (1888), Cheddington, Audley, Maiala and Rowerdennan - set in a landscape of fine formal gardens, remnant eucalypt bush and jacaranda-, oak- and pine-lined streets (Dictionary of Sydney). At the 2021 census it had 3,170 residents and a median weekly household income of $3,388, nearly double the national median of $1,746. Today it is a quiet, family-oriented suburb where the main local 'institution' is Knox Grammar School, founded at Warrawee in 1923, whose campus sits steps from the station.

At a Glance

Transport

Warrawee railway station (opened 1 August 1900 - the last station built on the North Shore line before its extension to North Sydney) is on the Sydney Trains T1 North Shore & Western line, 21.89 km by rail from Central; T1 services run north to Hornsby and Berowra and south through Gordon, Killara, Chatswood and North Sydney to the city. Warrawee station recorded about 412,380 entries and exits in 2023, roughly 1,130 a day, yet at the 2021 census only 3.7% of employed residents travelled to work by public transport and 25.5% by car, reflecting high work-from-home rates. Buses are a minor part of the mix: CDC NSW operates a single route through the suburb - the 573, Turramurra to Sydney Adventist Hospital - plus a NightRide service, while the Pacific Highway, the suburb's main arterial road, runs along its eastern edge.

Schools

Warrawee Public School - the suburb's NSW government K-6 primary school, established 1906 - sits on the Pacific Highway about 0.5 km south of the station at the Warrawee-Turramurra boundary (its official address is listed in Turramurra), and is the local government school catchment. Knox Grammar School - the independent boys' K-12 school founded in 1923 at 'Earlston', a Warrawee property across the railway line - is located predominantly within the suburb, its campus no more than 200 m from Warrawee station, although its administration office lists a Wahroonga address. There is no government high school in-suburb; Warrawee students are served by nearby Upper North Shore high schools such as Turramurra High School in adjacent Turramurra, or Knox's own senior school.

Shopping & Amenities

Warrawee is essentially shop-free: it has no retail village of its own and even the station precinct has no commercial activity, an anomaly on the Sydney network. The closest shopping and services are in the immediately adjacent centres of Wahroonga village and Turramurra, both a few minutes away, and the suburb's practical 'amenity hub' is the Knox Grammar campus and playing fields beside the station.

Parks & Outdoors

Warrawee's green character is its gardens rather than large public parks: the Dictionary of Sydney describes a landscape where fine formal gardens blend with exotic and regenerated native trees - stands of remnant eucalypts survive in Oswald Close and along the Warrawee/Chilton avenues, jacarandas canopy Bangalla Street, and eucalypts, pittosporums and wattles soften the railway embankment, while almost every garden holds a fine specimen tree (Dictionary of Sydney). No major council sportsground is listed by Ku-ring-gai Council within the suburb's small 1.3 km2 area; Knox Grammar's extensive playing fields near the station provide the main open sporting space within the suburb, and Ku-ring-gai Council sportsgrounds such as Norman Griffiths Oval sit close by in adjacent Pymble.

Property Market

The median house price in Warrawee was around Published house medians span about $2.6M-$3.1M because sales volume is tiny (only ~16 house sales a year): Allhomes lists a median house sale price of $3,130,000, while StMate puts the overall house median at ~$2.62M and the 4-bed median at $2.74M, with 5+ bed homes at ~$6M. Headline 'blue ribbon' estate sales run far above any published median - 6 Pibrac Avenue sold around $6.26M (July 2026) and 4 Pibrac Avenue $7.38M (November 2025) (Allhomes; StMate) (mid-2026). See our full Sydney property price map for how the suburb compares across the city. Warrawee is a repository of domestic architecture with many heritage-listed houses - Pibrac (1888), Cheddington (1890s), Rowerdennan (1913) and Harry Seidler's red-brick Exley House (1957, the only single-storey red-brick house he designed) among them - on large garden blocks, with houses dominating the stock and blocks of 1-4 acres originally. Published medians are distorted by the suburb's tiny turnover and mixed stock (Pacific Highway apartments vs Pibrac/Finlay/Hastings estates), so tracker medians of ~$2.6M-$3.1M understate the prestige tier where houses routinely sell for $5M-$7M+; StMate reports an ~80% auction clearance rate and median household income of $3,388/week.

New Developments

Very limited - a deliberate large-lot, low-density character fixed at subdivision: blocks were originally held to 1-4 acres, and Joseph Beresford Grant bought up every site threatened by commercial use and built houses on it, so Warrawee never developed shops or higher-density centres. New supply today is confined to small infill apartment and townhouse schemes along the Pacific Highway fringe (e.g. the low-rise blocks at 1389-1397 Pacific Highway and 1-3 Lowther Park Avenue) rather than any broader redevelopment, and heritage listings on houses such as Pibrac constrain change further (Allhomes; StMate; Dictionary of Sydney).

Jobs & Local Economy

Warrawee is a high-income professional and managerial suburb - the 2021 census recorded a median weekly household income of $3,388, almost double the national $1,746 - and most residents commute out for work, chiefly to Sydney CBD, North Sydney and Chatswood offices by train, with Macquarie Park, St Leonards and Hornsby also common destinations by car; only 3.7% of employed residents used public transport and 25.5% drove at the 2021 census, with home-based work prominent. In-suburb employment is limited to education - Knox Grammar School is a large independent school with substantial staff. The Sydney Adventist Hospital at nearby Wahroonga (adjacent, just north), one of the Upper North Shore's biggest employers, plus Hornsby's commercial and health precinct, anchor the local jobs market.

Nearby Suburbs

Wahroonga, Turramurra, Normanhurst, South Turramurra, Pymble

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:

• Transport for NSW
• Dictionary of Sydney
• NSW Government

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

Back to all Sydney suburb guides.