Removalists Coogee.

Coogee sits on the Eastern Suburbs coastline within the Randwick City Council area, its name derived from the Dharug word koojah, generally translated as the smell of drying seaweed - a reference to the kelp that regularly washes up on the beach. Early colonial visitors in the 1820s were genuinely unsure what the name referred to, and some accounts suggest it originally belonged to the next bay north, now called Gordons Bay. Coogee was officially recognised as a village in 1838, and its early street names tell their own story - Coogee Bay Road was originally Whale Street, Alfreda Street was Bondi Street, and Bream Street was Fish Street, before all were formalised under their current names through the nineteenth century.

The suburb's identity as a seaside resort was cemented by two landmark attractions. Wylie's Baths, an ocean tidal pool just south of the main beach, was built in 1907 by Henry Alexander Wylie, a champion long-distance and underwater swimmer, and remains in continuous operation today. The Coogee Palace Aquarium and Swimming Baths, which opened in December 1887, was a genuine spectacle for its time - an indoor 25-by-10-metre pool, an aquarium that for a period displayed the tiger shark involved in Sydney's infamous 1935 Shark Arm Case, a roller-skating rink, a 70-metre toboggan run, and a herd of donkeys for children to ride. The Palace burned down and was eventually demolished, but the scale of what once stood there says something about how seriously Coogee took its role as a pleasure resort.

Wedding Cake Island, the rocky outcrop a kilometre off Coogee Beach, gets its name from its tiered, icing-like appearance when waves break over it - though the exact origin is genuinely disputed, with competing theories about white wave caps versus accumulated bird droppings. The island is the turning point for an annual ANZAC Day surfboard paddle-out and a competitive open water swim. St Brigid's Catholic Church, built in 1921 in a Romanesque style modelled on Westminster Cathedral in London, is visible from most of the suburb thanks to its tall square tower.

One of Sydney's most sought-after coastal suburbs, where the mix of apartments and older terraces means no two jobs are quite the same.

Coogee's apartment buildings range from older walk-up blocks behind the beach to newer developments with goods lifts and strata requirements. Beach parking fills quickly on a good weather morning, and loading zones on Coogee Bay Road and the main strip are competitive during the day. The residential streets further from the beach are more manageable. Billy and Jet have worked Coogee and the surrounding Eastern Suburbs coastal suburbs consistently and plan the approach before arriving.