Mona Vale
The place
Mona Vale has the convenience of a town, but the feel of a village. Residents and visitors are never bored exploring the town centre as it boasts three major supermarkets, two fresh fruit markets, and an enviable assortment of shops.
Classic high-street offerings like the butcher, post office and bakery are available. So too are boutique fashion and homewares, toys, electrics, second-hand, beauty and wellness stores. Cafes, coffee dens, artisan bakeries and restaurants cater to a range of tastes.
Mona Vale is framed on its eastern side by Mona Vale Beach with golden sand and its iconic ocean lap pool. There is a second beach north of this which is known as ‘The Basin’ which is popular with body-boarders and surfers.
The people
Mona Vale boasts a connected community. Residents are passionate about their place and one in five contribute their time as volunteers.
The town centre caters to local residents, but boutique retail and medical services also attract people from further afield.
There is a higher proportion of post-retirement and elderly people in Mona Vale. 29.7 percent of the population is aged over 60, as compared to 21.9 percent for greater Northern Beaches.
Conversely, 25 to 34 year-olds (‘the young workforce’) are under-represented in Mona Vale. This cohort decreased in numbers since the last census count in 2011.*1
What's happening here?
On weekdays Mona Vale wakes up early. Tradies grab a pre-work coffee at dawn, and by 8.30am the main street is bustling with students, families and workers beginning their day.
Visitation to the centre is driven by retail, service and recreational offerings. A cluster of medical services are a strong draw card, as are the large-scale supermarkets. Visitors stay on to enjoy the coffee shops, cafes, boutique retail and beauty offerings, or to visit the library or gym.
Parks and outdoor play are part of Mona Vale’s appeal. Kitchener Park recreational precinct includes sports fields, tennis courts, bowling club and the immensely popular skate park, which opened in 2017. Village Park playground is situated within the town centre. You can also find the Flying Fox Park at Winnererremy Bay and Apex Park at Mona Vale Beach.
Village Park comes to life for large scale open-air events, such as markets, Carols by Candlelight and night food markets. The heart of Mona Vale town centre includes important civic spaces like Mona Vale Library, the Memorial Hall and Northern Beaches Council Customer Service Centre.
Who is doing business here?
Mona Vale has been identified as a strategic centre by the Greater Sydney Commission.
The Mona Vale catchment, which includes the suburbs of Mona Vale, Bayview and Warriewood, is a hive of economic activity with over 3,000 registered businesses. Over 600 of these businesses are professional services including 183 management advice and related counselling services and 116 computer system design and related services businesses.
The industrial area supports 251 registered businesses which employ 1,887 people. This industrial area provides urban services including automotive, construction-related trades and manufacturing activities.
Of particular interest is the strong concentration of marine industries, including surfboard manufacture, boat building and sail making among other specialisations which support marinas and slipways along the shorelines of Pittwater.
Land use
In Mona Vale, 71 percent of householders are either purchasing or fully own their home and 19.6 percent are renting.
Mona Vale also has high rates of households owning their property outright (40.5 percent) compared to the Northern Beaches average (33.1 percent).
In Mona Vale, 48.7 percent of the dwellings are medium or high density, compared to 43 percent in the Northern Beaches Council area.*2
Mona Vale is a high demand suburb for property viewings boasting 1,135 visits per property versus the NSW Average of 761.*3
Getting There And Around
Mona Vale Town Centre is nestled around the junction of Barrenjoey Road, Pittwater Road and Mona Vale Road, connecting Mona Vale to Sydney city, the upper North Shore and the northern parts of the Pittwater.
Parallel streets and lane ways radiate out from the triangular village park. To the north of the town centre, the shops give way to a light industrial area.
Mona Vale gets a walk score of 94 which is termed a walkers paradise and means that daily errands do not require a car.*4
Nineteen bus routes serve Mona Vale, connecting people to other parts of the Northern Beaches but also to Sydney city, a journey which is estimated to take approximately one hour and 15 minutes.*5
The B-Line bus terminates at Mona Vale providing access south every five minutes. The bus is a regular, reliable and high-capacity service between Mona Vale and the Sydney CBD which reduces congestion on our roads.
The town centre is separated from the ocean by Mona Vale Golf Course. Along the eastern edge of the golf course is the new 36 kilometre continuous coastal walkway linking Manly to Palm Beach, created as part of our Connecting Northern Beaches project.
Parking
There are 578 on-street public parking spaces in the town centre. 300 spaces in the commercial area and 278 spaces in the industrial area.*6
In addition to the on-street parking, Mona Vale Town Centre has four car parks, three privately owned and one Council owned.
References
* 1 profile.id.com.au/northern-beaches/about/?WebID=360
* 2 profile.id.com.au/northern-beaches/tenure?WebID=360
* 3 www.realestate.com.au/neighbourhoods/mona-vale-2103-nsw
* 4 walkscore: https://www.walkscore.com/
* 5 Transport for NSW website
* 6 Mona Vale Town Centre Traffic and Parking Strategy 2016