Bronte, New South Wales

Bronte is a beachside suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Bronte is located 8 kilometres east of the Sydney central business district, in the Waverley Council local government area of the Eastern Suburbs.

Bronte Beach sits on Nelson Bay, surrounded by Bronte Park. Bronte offers scenic cliff-top walking paths south to Coogee via the Waverley Cemetery and north to Tamarama and Bondi Beach. The cliff-top path offers views which extend from Ben Buckler in the north to Malabar in the south. Bronte is located about 2.5 km south of Bondi Beach.

The suburb has been declared the best of 641 Sydney suburbs by the Sydney Morning Herald's Good Suburbs Guide.

History
Robert Lowe who later became Viscount Sherbrooke, bought 42 acre of land from Mortimer Lewis (1796-1879), the Colonial Architect who owned most of the frontage in the area in the 1830s. His home was completed in 1845 and was named Bronte House, for Lord Nelson, who was the Duke of Bronte, a place in Sicily. The house, a single-storey stone bungalow located in Bronte Road, is currently owned by Waverley Council and leased to private tenants who hold open days a few times a year. It is now listed on the Register of the National Estate. The suburb of Bronte took its name from the estate which faced Nelson Bay, also named after Lord Nelson, the hero of the Battle of Trafalgar.

Lowe became a member of the New South Wales Legislative Council. He later moved back to England where he became a writer with The Times.

Culture
Bronte has a strong surf culture. The Bronte surf lifesaving club was founded in 1903 and claims to be the oldest surf lifesaving club in the world

An annual long distance ocean swimming event is held in December each year between Bondi Beach and Bronte.

Commercial area
The Bronte Road beachside shopping precinct is noteworthy because in recent years every shop has been converted into a restaurant, leaving no stores of any other type.