Wamberal () is a coastal

suburb A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area. They are oftentimes where most of a metropolitan areas jobs are located with some being predominantly residential. They can either be denser or less densely populated ...

of the Central Coast region of

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

, Australia. It is part of the

local government area A local government area (LGA) is an administrative division of a country that a local government is responsible for. The size of an LGA varies by country but it is generally a subdivision of a federated state, state, province, division (politica ...

and is located adjacent to the Wamberal Lagoon. Wamberal is an Aboriginal word meaning 'where the sea breaks'.

Geography and amenities

Wamberal is the next suburb from Terrigal, with the two suburbs being separated by the Terrigal Lagoon Estuary. The suburb has two distinct areas; there is a coastal strip that includes Wamberal Beach and the Lagoon estuary which houses medium to high-density residential properties, as well as a semi-rural area, slightly west of the beach. The latter contains coastal acreages and ridges of bushland which are legislated non-development areas to retain the area's ecosystem. The main thoroughfare through the suburb is the

Central Coast Highway Central Coast Highway is a highway through the Central Coast region of New South Wales, Australia. It connects Pacific Motorway ( M1) at Kariong with Pacific Highway (A43) at Doyalson. The highway was named after the region it goes through ...

through the north and south, previously known as The Entrance Road. Since 2008, the roadway has undergone developments at an estimated cost of A$100 million into a four-lane dual carriageway from Matcham to the north end of the suburb. Servicing the suburb from the south-east is Ocean View Drive, linking Wamberal to Terrigal. Wamberal has small clusters of high-end cafes, restaurants and boutique stores dotted along the beachfront strip, Ocean View Drive, and on nearby streets. In 2009 the Wamberal Surf Life Saving Club was redeveloped to accommodate a cafe and restaurant, in addition to new function rooms and surf life-saving amenities. Wamberal also has a Country Club, "Breakers", commemorating

ANZAC The Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) was originally a First World War army corps of the British Empire under the command of the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force. It was formed in Egypt in December 1914, and operated during the ...

efforts; its amenities include a golf course, bowling green and tennis facilities in addition to a brasserie and various bars with gambling outlets. Wamberal beach has 3.8 km of sand. Swimming Wamberal is dominated by active and often strong rips, particularly north of the surf club. Definitely swim between the flags. The lagoon also offers a quieter swimming area. Usually there is an attached bar with only small rips, however higher waves will increase rip strength, so it is still best to stay between the flags. Surfing Wamberal picks up more swell and generally has good beach breaks as well as waves over the northern reefs. There is a government primary school in the rural sector of the suburb, teaching kindergarten through grade six. Storms in 2020 highlighted problems of erosion that remain unresolved.

Demographics

At the , there were people in Wamberal, of which 48.8% were male and 51.2% were female.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people Indigenous Australians are people with familial heritage from, or recognised membership of, the various ethnic groups living within the territory of contemporary Australia prior to British colonisation. They consist of two distinct groups, w ...

made up 1.3% of the population. The

median The median of a set of numbers is the value separating the higher half from the lower half of a Sample (statistics), data sample, a statistical population, population, or a probability distribution. For a data set, it may be thought of as the “ ...

age in Wamberal was 38 years, just above the national median of 37. Children aged 0–14 years made up 21.4% of the population, while people aged 65 years and over made up 13.9% of the population, just below the national median of 14%. Of people in the suburb aged 15 years and over, 54.3% were married and 11.1% were either divorced or separated. Population growth in Wamberal between the 2001 and 2006 censuses was 5.08% (national average 5.78%) and in the five years to the 2011 census, it was 10.24% (national average 8.32%). The median weekly income for Wamberal residents was about 25% higher than the national average. At the 2011 census, the proportion of residents in Wamberal who stated their

ancestry An ancestor, also known as a forefather, fore-elder, or a forebear, is a parent or ( recursively) the parent of an antecedent (i.e., a grandparent, great-grandparent, great-great-grandparent and so forth). ''Ancestor'' is "any person from ...

Australian Australian(s) may refer to: Australia * Australia, a country * Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia ** European Australians ** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists ** Aboriginal Aus ...

Anglo-Saxon The Anglo-Saxons, in some contexts simply called Saxons or the English, were a Cultural identity, cultural group who spoke Old English and inhabited much of what is now England and south-eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. They traced t ...

exceeded 83%. More than 60% of Wamberal residents nominated a

religious Religion is a range of social- cultural systems, including designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relate humanity to supernatural ...

affiliation with

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, which was significantly higher than the national average of 50.2%. Compared to the national average, households in Wamberal had a lower proportion (6.3%) where two or more languages are spoken (national average 20.4%), and a higher proportion (92.6%) where only

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was spoken at home (national average 76.8%).

Property

The prestige of Wamberal's property has increased dramatically in recent years largely due to leafy and family-friendly streets, shrinking availability of land, and the suburb's proximity to local amenities including public transport, commercial and industrial areas, and education while remaining distant. This motif was heralded in 2008 by the passing in at auction of a 1940s bungalow on a double block of beachfront land at A$7.2 million. The property has since been redeveloped, believed to be worth more than $10 million, which would make it the most valuable home on the Central Coast. This practice of redevelopment of property within Wamberal is shifting property prices further upmarket and moving the suburb further into the limelight with wealthier home buyers. This shift may also be due to the redevelopment of local amenities such as playgrounds and community spaces such as parks, some of which were initiated under the Nation Building Scheme of the Rudd Government's Economic Stimulus Policy. In September 2010, the median house price for Wamberal was $1.1 million.

References

Guide to Sydney Beaches
*"Sand in our Souls - the Beach in Australian History" Leone Huntsman, MUP, 2001 {{Suburbs of Central Coast (New South Wales) Suburbs of the Central Coast (New South Wales)