Quiet Sydney city dwelling wanted!

January 2, 2010 6:18 PM

SydneyFilter: I am looking for a location that's suitable for me to live. My first priority is quiet serenity and not so far away from the city (20 mins bus trip at most)

- Also neighborhoods that are described as vibrant,trendy with lots of student/backpacker/transient population is not what I am looking for.

- I prefer a neighborhood that has no strong association with any ethnicity.

If you could help me find a suburb, and/or even be more specific to suggest a street or even a building would be great.

Essentially I am looking for a one or two bedroom apartment with $450/week price at most.

posted by neworder7 to travel & transportation around Sydney, Australia (12 answers total)

The main issue you're likely to bump against is that most places close to the CBD tend to be a bit studenty / backpackery / partyish, so you'd need to rule out places like Newtown, Glebe, Balmain, Darlinghurst & Surry Hills entirely - essentially, any suburb largely comprised of Victorian-era terrace housing.

I can't speak much for places North of the Harbour, because I've never spent much time there, but on the Southern side, maybe somewhere around Centennial Park is what you might be looking for...?

The park itself is quite serene & tranquil, and the suburbs on its fringes tend to be quite laid back. On the Northern fringe of the park is Woollahra, quite pretty, but also upmarket. Think fashion boutiques, expensive delicatessens & nobody driving anything less than a Merc or a BMW.

On the southern side is a more laid-back area - on this map (if my link works), it's the area bounded by Alison Rd, Cowper St, Avoca St & Darley Rd. Technically, I think this area counts as part of Randwick. Plenty of roughly 1920s-1930s two-storey apartment blocks, possibly some student population (as it's reasonably close the the Uni of NSW), but overwhelmingly a quiet, suburban kind of area. The supermarkets & restaurants etc in the Randwick shopping area are also reasonably close by (maybe 10-15min walk). You'd also be reasonably close to some nice beaches, if that's your thing.

The actual suburb called 'Centennial Park' you might prefer to avoid - it's more like highrise apartment blocks, favoured by people like English & Irish expats on working holidays, near to pubs & nightclubs & a bit of a party scene.
posted by UbuRoivas at 8:07 PM on January 2, 2010

Now that I think about it, Stanmore & Petersham are reasonably peaceful & laid-back. Back on the Eastern side again, Queens Park might suit you, but I have no idea how many rentals there are there - seems to be mostly professional homeowners, more than anything else.
posted by UbuRoivas at 8:14 PM on January 2, 2010

Final suggestion: if you can find a flat for less than $450 in Darling Point, that's a surprisingly tranquil little corner of town, with a lovely little park on the point that very few people seem to know about.
posted by UbuRoivas at 8:16 PM on January 2, 2010

If you can find something at the end of Kurraba Road furthest from the bridge for < $450 and you don't mind taking the ferry to the CBD, then I would go with that. It's a beautiful, quiet street. I saw some great studios there for $200-250 around 2005, so maybe it's doable.
posted by caek at 10:41 PM on January 2, 2010

Some parts of Petersham are quiet and laid-back. But the area around the railway station and Crystal street has both a strip club and a fortified gang house (which is not infrequently firebombed). Having once lived nearby, I can vouch that that part of Petersham is not particularly serene. The south-western parts are nice enough.

Earlwood and Undercliffe are quiet and serene. Parts of Undercliffe overlook the Wolli Creek valley, which I recommended to you in your last question. Both suburbs are multicultural, and many older residents are Greek, but these days I wouldn't say the area is strongly associated with a single ethnicity.
posted by embrangled at 11:11 PM on January 2, 2010

North Sydney or Neutral Bay. Wollstonecraft and Waverton might be too far away, but they're even better.
posted by taff at 11:12 PM on January 2, 2010

If you are willing to compromise and make it a 27 minute train trip to Central (trains are more reliable time-wise anyway), Concord West would fit your bill.
posted by trialex at 1:06 AM on January 3, 2010

Thank you all for the answers so far.
What do you think about inner west, Five Dock, Drummoyne, Balmain?
posted by neworder7 at 1:18 AM on January 3, 2010

- Five Dock: probably a bit far to commute to town within 20min. Victoria Rd / Parramatta Rd buses are the only way, really, and those roads are a bit of a logjam during peak hour.

- Drummoyne: same issue, really.

- Balmain: very pretty, and it's a short ferry ride into the CBD, which is a daily bonus. Falls a bit into the "trendy" bucket, but not that you'd notice it in the backstreets. Cutesy little restored workers' cottages everywhere. Some nice foreshore parks around. Population a bit of a mix of gentrifying professional types & some young & trendies, but overall quite peaceful. Quite possibly one of the most appealing places for a CBD worker to live in Sydney, if only you can deal with the narrow streets & smallish houses (it *is* a gentrified workers' district, after all).

If you're thinking the Harbour end of the inner West, Lilyfield could be a nice option for what you're looking for.
posted by UbuRoivas at 1:31 AM on January 3, 2010

Summer Hill. 20min to the city by train, lovely little village, nice ratio of flats to houses. You should be able to find a nice flat in your budget.

Also, Annandale. Quiet, leafy streets and closer to the city by bus.
posted by mooza at 3:35 AM on January 3, 2010

Since they haven't been mentioned, Bardwell Park and Dulwich Hill are both about 20mins by train from the city, very quiet and certainly within budget. You would likely get a house for that money too, if that would be a benefit.
posted by bystander at 4:37 AM on January 3, 2010

I'd go north of the harbour bridge.

Cammeray / northbridge / woolstonecraft / waverton / willoughby all fit your requirements nicely. I have lived in Cammeray for 12 months.
posted by jannw at 6:31 AM on January 3, 2010