What would the Australian summer be without the clustering of moths around the streetlights and veranda lamps? Moth Light by Ruth McDermott, is an installation of clustered metal gold plated moths, mounted on a net to create the warm hue of summer light. Using existing streetlights, the artwork transforms the light into golden hues and intricate shapes, plus creates movement with any prevailing wind. 

Join Painting With Prosecco in their mission to clean up local beaches, lakes, and rivers on the Central Coast! A massive art mural installation will be created from plastic found in our waterways, collected by local schools, community groups and organisations between 1 Sept-31 October. Come into the studio every day of the Lakes Festival to make your mark. Let's make our community a cleaner and healthy place to live.

In 2023 walkers found a Loggerhead turtle nest on Shelly Beach! To celebrate this wonderful and endangered species help create a giant loggerhead turtle art piece that will be created using natural items and recycled items collected by a local childcare centre and pre-school before the event. Bring natural or recycled items with you to help create our turtle.

The 8th annual Toukley Arts and Craft Fair by the Lake is a fun day for the whole family with locally handmade arts and crafts, artwork, art bargain tables and lots more. 

The annual Arts and Craft Fair in conjunction with Lakes Festival celebrates art in our local community.

Join local artist Bella Rose to create a community mural that celebrates some of the special migratory shorebirds that visit Tuggerah Lakes and The Entrance Channel each summer. These include the endangered Little Tern and the Bar-tailed Godwit. This is a free event and everyone is encouraged to pick up a paintbrush and help bring the artwork to life.

Art in the Park is a fantastic opportunity for individuals and families to create art inspired by the environment in, on and around Lake Tuggerah. With three themes: 'Fora and fauna of the Lakes', 'The waterways and estuaries of the Lakes' and 'Life and fun on the Lakes', you are free to create environmental based themes.  Art supplies provided, great prizes to be won and food trucks on site. 

Come and join local creative, Bianca to create a gorgeous, coiled bowl made from plants. Weaving has been around for centuries, and now more than ever is a great way to slow down, connect with yourself and make something that is gentle on the earth. Using fibres like raffia, inflorescence, bangalow palm sheath and cabbage palm you will make a stunning bowl to take home! Bookings essential.

Light Up the Lake is not to be missed! Be amazed by headliners Teen Jesus and the Jean Teasers and The Buoys, as well as RAT!Hammock, Turpentine Babychino, and great local talent Stella Hannagan. Immerse yourself in the fun activities around the park, enjoy watching the roving performers and eating the fantastic food. There will be a sense of celebration in the air. Finish the night watching the jetpack show and fireworks display that will literally Light Up The Lake!

Enjoy a FREE kayak paddle on beautiful Tuggerah Lake, departing from The Entrance. Learn about habitats like seagrass and saltmarsh, as well as information on incredible wildlife including our endangered Little Tern birds plus rehabilitation projects and how we can all care for our waterways. 

Enjoy a FREE kayak paddle on beautiful Tuggerah Lake, departing from The Entrance. Learn about habitats like seagrass and saltmarsh, as well as information on incredible wildlife including our endangered Little Tern birds plus rehabilitation projects and how we can all care for our waterways. 

Belt out your favourite songs for everyone to see! Don’t miss your chance to come up, have a sing and be a star during The Lakes Festival 2023. Complete with a massive LED screen as your backdrop, you'll appear as the star in your own music video!

A free family-friendly community event in Like Minds Avoca to explore the relationship between people and water. Raising awareness and appreciation for the importance of clean water, the event will celebrate the beauty of water in the world around us. It will be a day for artists and the community to come together to create something beautiful through visual art, dance, music and story telling.

Join Roundabout Circus at Gosford Kibble Park for SPIRAL Coast, a dynamic blend of circus skills and coastal fun and immerse yourself in a world where the vibrancy of coastal life meets the thrill of the circus. Get ready to be captivated by a flurry of colourful performances and hands-on activities. Have a go, you never know, you may find a new passion and connection! 

Central Coast Council’s award-winning environmental education team invites you to join a FREE kayak tour of the Davistown area. Enjoy a kayak paddle on beautiful Brisbane Water. Visit Rileys Island, see amazing wildlife and learn how we can all care for our waterways.

Central Coast Council’s Landcare and OzFish have teamed to tackle much-needed wetland restoration through Floating Landcare. Through Council’s partnership with Clean4Shore they have identified numerous remote islands and foreshores that are weed infested (Bitou bush, Lantana, Asparagus fern, Privet etc.) So if you're keen to get your hands dirty, and help improve the health of our local wetlands and waterways through a bit of Landcare, this is a great opportunity to get involved!

Enjoy a kayak paddle on beautiful Lake Munmorah. Learn about salt marsh, our unique birdlife and how we can all help to care for our lakes. Along the way, you will hear about unique habitats like seagrass and saltmarsh, as well as information on incredible wildlife including the record-breaking Bar-tailed Godwits. Learn about some of Council's waterways rehabilitation projects and how we can all care for our waterways.

Enjoy a kayak paddle on beautiful Lake Munmorah. Learn about salt marsh, our unique birdlife and how we can all help to care for our lakes. Along the way, you will hear about unique habitats like seagrass and saltmarsh, as well as information on incredible wildlife including the record-breaking Bar-tailed Godwits. Learn about some of Council's waterways rehabilitation projects and how we can all care for our waterways.

Dress up in your most enchanting water-themed attire and be transported into a world of boundless imagination and thriving community spirit. Enjoy an evening of aerial performances, live music, artisan markets and delicious food. Let’s revel in the magic of Central Coast's creative arts community and the awe-inspiring waters that shape our lives! 

Central Coast Council's award-winning environmental education team invites you to join a FREE kayak tour exploring Patonga Creek. Enjoy a kayak paddle on beautiful Patonga Creek which meanders through Brisbane Water National Park. See amazing wildlife and learn how we can all care for our waterways. 

Make a splash at Roundabout Circus's SplashAbout Showcase! Marvel at the prowess of our student and professional shows from 2-3:30pm and 6-8pm.

Dive into the aquatic-themed excitement at Roundabout Circus, where the enchantment of the circus meets the allure of the sea.

A perfect event for family fun and aquatic adventure lovers.

Keira is a Central Coast Mum of 3 young boys, who loves calling the Central Coast home and raising her family here. One of her favourite things about living on the Central Coast is how much there is to do year-round!

Along with her husband Declan, they both love being outdoors and whenever they get some kid-free time, you’ll find them going on hikes and exploring the Central Coast's fantastic restaurant scene.

^{Photo credit: Keira Trainor}

A big day of exploring calls for coffee and pastries. Always. Stop in at Sonoma Bakery Terrigal to fill up on delicious coffee and freshly baked pastries.

Hot tip: the ‘Bake at Home' range is also perfect entertaining family and friends at home, or if you’re just visiting to bring a piece of Terrigal back home with you!  

^{Photo credit: Sonoma Bakery}

Take a drive to Bouddi National Park and complete the coastal walk that takes you from Putty Beach to Macmasters. Take your time, the view is breathtaking and you might even spot some Whales!

If you’re interested Girri Girra also offers an amazing tour of Bouddi National Park.

^{Photo credit: Keira Trainor}

If one beautiful National Park isn’t enough, Mount Ettalong is the next spot, less than 20 minutes drive away. It’s a short walk up to the lookout, so you don’t need to worry about being too tired to take it in! It’s also a beautiful spot for a sunset picnic.

^{Photo credit: Keira Trainor}

Finish your day off with a well-deserved cocktail! Indulge in their share plates and theatrical cocktails. You can’t go past the eclectic style of this gorgeous bar. Find a cozy corner and spend a while chatting the evening away to finish off a perfect day!

^{Photo credit: Bar Toto}

Saddle up on a horse riding adventure through the bush trails of the Glenworth Valley, home of the largest and oldest horse riding operations in Australia. Whether a beginner or an old hand, follow the bush trails, crossing creeks and waterways. If you really want adventure, sign up for a cattle ride drive, where you drive a mob of castle across the valley.

If the roar of engines gets your blood pumping, get down and dirty quad biking in the Glenworth Valley wilderness. First, visitors over 12 can learn to operate and steer the 250cc bikes (all with automatic gear), then you can zoom through the bush trails, before finishing on a purpose-built quad biking circuit.

Go behind the scenes for a personal animal encounter in Somersby. An 80-minute session allows you to get up close to interact with the animals and keepers (including a Galapagos Tortoise), but real dare-devils can book in for a Venom Room encounter, where you can watch venomous snakes and funnel web spiders being milked for their venom, which is then turned into important anti-venom for snakebites.

Nestled up high in the eucalypts of the Ourimbah State Forest, big and little kids can get a bird’s eye view of the forest at Treetops Adventure Central Coast near Wyong Creek. An ECO Certified activity, visitors can fulfil their need for safe but speedy swinging through the trees on your own ropes obstacle course, or families can bounce around endlessly in Treetop Networld.

_{Image: Remy Brand x Destination Central Coast}

Whether you’re new to cross country riding or have mountain biking in your blood, Ourimbah Mountain Bike Park has 22 kms of trails to choose from. Including gravity trails and a cross-country loop carved through the forest with various degrees of difficulty. Check these community-managed trails status ahead of time live on their website, and remember the green trails are for newcomers and kids, black trails best left to advanced riders.

  _{Image: Remy Brand x Destination Central Coast}

Some of the Hinterland’s most fascinating creatures don’t keep daylight hours, so book in for a special 'Wild Night Out' tour in Calga, showing you the crepuscular creatures that sleep at both day and night, preferring to come out and forage in the hours around dusk and dawn. Wild Night Out tours start an hour before sunset and finish with a campfire after dark, taking in wildlife at the park including Tasmanian Devils and more.

Love the idea of a night in the Australian bush, but don’t want to sleep rough? Book your night stay in an Eco Cabin at Walkabout Wildlife Park, where the wild things are! Choose from cabin or tent in the Calga bushland, making it easy to rest after your full day of activities and wild night tour on-site. When you wake with the kookaburras singing, don’t be surprised if there's a kangaroo at your window waiting to say g'day.

Head south towards Spencer, stopping for breakfast at the Hub of Mangrove Mountain for coffee and breakfast. The small store offers cheesecake, cafe fare and gelato as well as stocking fresh produce from local farms in and around the Central Coast Hinterland.

The tiny community of Spencer proudly calls itself the hub of the universe, boasting its own “invisible” hotel, river tours, dingy hire, and cafe food. You’ll find one of Rush’s most evocative works: Serenity. While he normally creates figures with animals, Serenity is of a female figure reclining on the riverbank by the wharf created using locally sourced gymea lilies. The sculpture was damaged slightly during the 2021 floods on the Hawkesbury but it still remains in tact with the figure dangling her feet in the river.

Dine in with a view of the water at The Anchor, the newly refurbished, family-friendly cafe at the heart of town. Along with bait, ice and takeaway, the cafe offers live music Sunday sessions on the wharf in summer and fireside dining in the winter months.

Sign up for a tour with Heritage Ventures, who run quirky, ever-changing micro-history tours of the area featuring everything from a tour of Dangar Island to a Women up the Creeks tour (complete with fiddler) and watercolour fish painting.

Drive up and stop at Jerry’s One stop Cafe, a favourite with bikies for their burgers and bacon and egg roll, One Stop Jerry’s Cafe in Kulnura is a must visit for a sneaky bite and a chance to pursue the latest in two-wheeled automotive perfection. Two of Pete Rush’s sculptures are located nearby: Giraffe and a Young Child, and the Smiling Owl.

Feeling inspired by Rush’s work? In the quiet hinterland village of Somersby you can sign up for a Sunday-morning blacksmithing course at Artisan Estate, a 400-tree pecan farm that also offers Farm Stays.

Order a coffee and lunch at Sussurri Restuarant and Manor House, down the bottom of the winding Bumble Hill Road in the rural village of Yarramalong. Sit down in the garden for coffee and a meal, or grab some cheese and produce for a picnic from their deli and giftshop for later on.

If you’ve got kids, make time to detour down George Springs Drive to Grace Springs Farm in Kulnura, which opens to the public on special open days and by appointment, allowing visitors to tag along for the daily chores where visitors can collect eggs, cuddle chooks, pat a calf, and see a cow milked.

Spend the night in a luxury eco tent at Waterfall Springs Retreat and Wildlife Sanctuary, located in Kulnura. Book a self-catering BBQ, pizza or picnic hamper for dinner, and take a one-hour tour of the Sanctuary, which is focused on saving the brush-tailed rock wallaby and yellow-footed rock wallaby, and rehabilitating eastern grey & red kangaroos, as well as swamp and red-necked wallabies. 

Jad is known and loved for his couch antics and is now paving his way as a proud restauranteur. Jad grew up exploring the Central Coast with his family and is now taking his fantastic memories on the road with him as he explores our region.

The Central Coast is the perfect escape from Sydney; whether you want to explore the foodie scene, take time to relax or get the heart pumping – there’s something for everyone.

No road trip is complete without an epic breakfast to fuel the day, pull up to Saddles Mount White, a hidden gem that transcends you into a whole new world. It's the perfect winter restaurant with beautiful furnishings, saddle seats, and a cosy fire.

Grace Springs Farm is a small family-run farm where you can take a farm tour. While there you’ll not only get to meet an array of animals but also get first-hand experience about their regenerative farming. Or, if you don’t make it to the farm, keep your eye out for Grace Spring Farms at the local farmer's markets!

Check in to an Eco Cabin at Glenworth Valley for spacious rooms and breathtaking scenery. Nothing is quite like a winter evening spent around a fire, cooking and chatting until it’s time to get into bed. 

There are endless adventures to be had at Glenworth Valley, whether you’re staying overnight or just popping in to visit. Quad biking is the perfect activity for thrill-seekers. Or slow things down and take a horseback ride through the beautiful valley.

Grab some lunch to take away at one of the local haunts and make your way to Mooney Mooney Bridge & Staples lookout, where you can sit by the water and soak up the sunshine and nature.  The perfect way to remind you that you’re away from the hustle and bustle of Sydney.

Whether you’re travelling with kids or a kid at heart, the Australian Reptile Park is the perfect spot to go on your way back from Sydney. Spend some time wandering around the park, checking out all the animals. If you want to get close and personal, cuddle up close to a koala and feed some Kangaroos before you’re on your merry way back to Sydney after an epic weekend.