Shellharbour

We start our weekend like proper locals: a slow saunter towards the foreshore where, as Broadsheet once noted, 5th Avenue Cafe used to lean into the beachfront with its row of pines and verandah — you could almost pretend you were in NYC, if your idea of NYC involved bobbing yachts and friendly seagulls. These days we’re more likely to detour to Shellharbour TAFE (Building C) for Kettle’s On — yes, that Kettle’s On — where the $9 meals make the idea of a fancy brunch seem… ridiculous. And if we’ve got kids in tow, a post-meal sugar bribe at The Lick Lab in Oak Flats (levitating ice cream, holograms — the works) seals the outing.

Our Saturday looks like this: a paddle or a prawning line on Lake Illawarra (the Urban List reminds us it’s prime for fishing and watersports), a quick run through Shellharbour Square Fish Market to see what the bay’s produced (long-serving local staple, per FindGlocal), then a lazy spin along the Grand Pacific Drive because Time Out keeps reminding visiting Sydneysiders that this is the scenic route they absolutely must do.

There’s been talk of shiny fixes too. Time Out reported the NSW push for modular social housing — the plan once promised five modular homes for Shellharbour — so yes, we get innovation and prefab headlines alongside our surf wax.

Who’d hate living here? If your idea of fun is permanent CBD frenzy, rooftop bars on every corner and never-ending late-night neon, Shellharbour will feel quaintly inconvenient. And if you can’t stand the idea of local quirks — fish markets that’ve been around for decades, TAFE meal runs, or dessert bars that flirt with science fiction — maybe don’t unpack.

Who’d love it here? Families who used to sign up for Shellharbour Beach Pups at Bardsley Park or Shellharbour Playtime at the Flinders Child & Family Centre; road-trippers following the Grand Pacific Drive; anyone who thinks lake mornings, cheap TAFE lunches, and levitating ice-cream are a perfectly reasonable definition of civilisation. We’ll take our little coastal eccentricities, thanks — with a side of chips from the fish market.