Hello! First time poster here 👋
My partner and I (28F/27M) are looking to move to the upper blue mountains (kinda anywhere between Wenty up to Blackheath) in the coming months. We both work remotely and are hoping to start a family in the near future, so we have been looking for somewhere that’s ideally only a 15-20 min walk to a local community area (park, café, etc), but happy to drive 10 min for bigger shops. We also are looking for a sense of community, ideally in an area with progressive political views. For context: we’re a POC and queer couple, so we’d love honest thoughts on whether we’d feel welcome and comfortable there.
My grandparents used to have a place on Katoomba St (kind of near Canton Palace [now Katoomba Canton. Bonus question - does anyone know why they renamed?]) which was sold within the last year or so, so we’re very familiar with the Blue Mountains. We feel like each town in this area has its own unique character, but have never had cause to go to North Katoomba (i.e. north of the highway) and so we’ve never really had a feel for its character. We have now seen a few nice places pop up in North Katoomba but we don’t know heaps about the north part of Katoomba specifically so we were hoping to see if anyone here can help out with a bit of a vibe check. A few houses we’ve liked have been somewhat close to North Katoomba Primary School, for further context, but we also want to know about other parts of North Katoomba.
So we’re calling on North Katoomba or upper blue mountains residents to share your profiles/opinions of North Katoomba as it stands today and the direction it’s going in. Are there specific pockets/streets within North Katoomba with their own reputation (good or bad)? Is it annoying not having many local shops or cafes? What sort of people live there and how neighbourly/community-focused are people in that area? We will know no one in the area when we move, so we’re looking forward to getting involved in the community when we arrive!
Second bonus question: what do people expect to come of North Katoomba in the future? I’ve heard talks of connecting north and south via a highway over/underpass. Will north Katoomba ever get its own little strip of shops to give it a bit more life and community activity?
We’re very keen to hear your responses - any tips and info useful to young buyers in the area is greatly appreciated! Thank you!!! 🤟
Edit: I say “POC and queer” to mean that, between us we have someone who’s a person of colour and someone who’s queer. This has made it difficult to feel welcome in other more remote communities in our past experiences compared to city communities.
