Sutton Forest Hotels

Sutton Forest is a small village in the Southern Highlands, 5 km southwest of Moss Vale on the Illawarra Highway in Wingecarribee Shire. It is about 1 1/2 hours' drive southwest of Sydney. In 1819 it was named by Governor Lachlan Macquarie after Charles Manners-Sutton, 1st Viscount Canterbury, a speaker of the House of Commons. In 2001 it had a population of 191. The surrounding area is part of the lands administrative unit of the Sutton Forest Parish. Sutton Forest is located in an agrarian setting and is surrounded by farms, vineyards and is home to elegant country homes and estates. Land increased in value thanks to the boom in the Sydney real estate market at the turn of the 21st Century. It is in one of the oldest areas settled by Europeans in Australia after Sydney and is somewhat reminiscent of an English village due to the cool Southern Highlands climate and good rainfall. Sutton Forest comprises a church, an inn, a couple of restaurants and one or two specialty shops. In 2004, a proposal to locate Sydney's second airport in Sutton Forest met with fierce opposition from locals.