Louise Gong

The diverse, sprawling Campbelltown is an area of multitudes. Located 53 kilometres from the Sydney CBD, Campbelltown sits on the land of the Dharawal nation. Overlooked for far too long in favour of its shinier and fractionally-closer-to-Sydney cousin Liverpool, or dismissed as merely a gateway to the Southern Highlands, Campbelltown is a city that’s coming into its own.  The competing influences and rich history of the town are on full display. From the town’s preserved colonial architecture marking the start of Campbelltown as it is known today, to the waves of migration and intercity movement that shaped the area through the 20th century, Campbelltown today is a melting pot in the truest sense.  Jump to a section: EAT DRINK COFFEE THINGS TO DO SHOPPING What’s Campbelltown known for? Campbelltown isn’t known for just one feature. Campbelltown today is home to one of Sydney’s largest urban populations of First Nations people, migrant communities, a vibrant arts and culture scene, and an absolutely unparalleled assortment of natural landscapes. It’s also an educational hub of South West Sydney, with a major TAFE campus and a key Western Sydney University campus.  Why do the locals love it? Shefali Pall has lived and worked in Campbelltown for 17 years and is the head of marketing at local cafe Alkalizer.  Pall shouts out the “beautiful food joints” and “obviously, our nature reserves”, which she considers as the area's “untapped gems”. “But the most special thing about Campb

Since it first landed on Australia’s shores sometime in the mid-naughties, bubble tea – with its distinctive wide straw and chewy, fruity additions – has established itself as a staple in the lives of many Sydneysiders, both long-standing acolytes and recent converts. With its high-vis aesthetic and fast-casual appeal, you're more likely to slurp bubble tea in a food court than a boutique teahouse (find our list of the best here) – but there's a new wave of bubble tea makers shaking up the game. While the basic bubble tea formula has stayed the same – cold tea with toppings, like tapioca ‘pearls’, jellies, cheese and creamy foams – its artisanal iteration is miles apart from its mass-produced counterpart.   For this growing movement of handmade bubble tea makers, gone are the days of exclusively artificial flavourings and creamers: more and more outlets are hand-producing artisanal toppings from scratch and farming their own tea or sourcing it from small producers. Xing Fu Tang and The Alley LuJiaoXiang, both global franchises originating out of Taiwan, the birthplace of bubble tea, focus on one type of tapioca pearl, made from brown sugar, while local brand Bubble Nini makes multiple flavours of pearls daily, in-house. While the basic bubble tea formula has stayed the same, its artisanal iteration is miles away from its mass-produced counterpart. That Bubble Nini focuses on small batch production comes as no surprise once you step into one of its three stores (a fourth conce