Guide to Kiama New South Wales Australia

Of all the seaside towns south of Sydney, Kiama is probably the most attractive. It sits on a series of green basalt headlands about 120 kilometres from the city, with a small harbour, a lighthouse, Norfolk pines along the foreshore and a main street of old shopfronts running up the hill. It is small enough to walk everywhere and has been drawing holidaymakers by train since the 1890s.

Known For

• The Kiama Blowhole
• Rock pools, surf beaches and a pretty harbour
• The 22-kilometre Kiama Coast Walk

The name comes from an Aboriginal word, Kiarama, usually translated as where the sea makes a noise. Anyone who has stood beside the blowhole in a big swell will see why.

Things To Do in Kiama

Kiama Blowhole

On Blowhole Point, beside the lighthouse, the sea has cut a tunnel into the basalt that opens through the roof of the headland. When a wave drives in with enough force, a column of water bursts 20 metres or more into the air with a boom you can feel in your chest. It works best when the swell is from the south-east, and it can be disappointing on a calm day. The viewing platforms are fenced; stay behind them, as the rocks are slippery and people have been swept in.

Little Blowhole

A few minutes’ drive or a half-hour walk south, at Tingira Crescent, a much smaller opening in the rocks often performs better than its big sister, particularly in a north-easterly swell. It is far less crowded.

Lighthouse and Pilots Cottage

The white lighthouse on the point has guided ships into Kiama since 1887. Next to it, the Pilots Cottage of 1881 is the local museum, with displays on the harbour, the cedar trade and the basalt quarries. It is usually open from Friday to Monday in the middle of the day.

Beaches and Rock Pools

Surf Beach, right beside the town centre, is patrolled in season. Kendalls Beach, over the next headland, is smaller and sheltered, and Easts Beach beyond it is good for families. There are two free ocean pools: the Blowhole Point pool, cut into the rocks north of the lighthouse, and the Continental Pool beside the harbour.

Kiama Coast Walk

This walk follows the coast for 22 kilometres from the Minnamurra River, through Kiama, to Werri Lagoon at Gerringong. It divides into three sections. The northern part passes Jones Beach, Cathedral Rocks and the strange basalt columns of Bombo Headland; the middle links the town’s beaches and both blowholes; and the southern six kilometres, from Loves Bay, cross open green farmland high above the sea with no road in sight. That last stretch is one of the finest short coastal walks in the state.

The Town

Collins Street has a row of timber terrace houses built in the 1880s for quarry workers, now craft shops and cafes. The harbour has a fish market and a fleet of charter boats, markets are held on the foreshore at Black Beach, and Manning Street and Terralong Street have the main shops.

The Hinterland

Saddleback Mountain, ten minutes inland, has a lookout over the whole coast. The village of Jamberoo, the Minnamurra Rainforest, a large water park and the Illawarra Fly treetop walk are all within half an hour.

Where To Stay

Kiama has a resort hotel above the harbour, several motels, guesthouses in old homes and a large supply of holiday apartments.

Council-run holiday parks sit right on the water at Blowhole Point, the harbour, Surf Beach and Kendalls Beach, and they are booked out months ahead for summer.

Eat & Drink

Cafes and restaurants are concentrated on Manning Street, Terralong Street and around the harbour. Penny Whistlers, beside the water, and the Hungry Monkey, for burgers, are long-standing favourites, and there is fish and chips at the harbour to eat on the grass. A farmers market is held on Wednesday afternoons near Surf Beach.

History

Kiama is in the country of the Wodi Wodi people of the Dharawal nation. George Bass anchored his whaleboat in the bay in December 1797 and described the blowhole. Cedar getters were the first Europeans to work here, and David Smith became the first permanent settler when he built a house in 1832. The town site was reserved in 1826, and Kiama became a municipality in 1859. Dairying was the mainstay until the 1870s, when quarrying of basalt, known as blue metal, began for Sydney’s roads and railways. The harbour was cut from solid rock to ship it out.

Events

The Kiama Jazz and Blues Festival has been held each March for nearly forty years. It took a break in 2026, when a smaller weekend of music ran in its place, and is due back in 2027.

Getting to Kiama

Kiama is about two hours from Sydney by the M1 Princes Motorway. Electric trains on the South Coast Line run from Sydney Central in around two hours and twenty minutes, and the station is a short walk from the harbour and the blowhole. A connecting train continues to Gerringong, Berry and Bomaderry.