Tea Gardens is a locality in the Great Lakes Council Local Government Area, located near the southern extremity of the Mid North Coast and the northern extremity of the Hunter Region in New South Wales

New South Wales

New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...

, Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

.

At the 2006 census, Tea Gardens had a population of 2,094, with most of the population resident in the village of Tea Gardens at the southern end of the locality.

Geography

Tea Gardens extends along the west bank of the Myall River

Myall River

The Myall River is a river on the mid-North Coast of the Australian state of New South Wales that empties into Port Stephens, near its mouth with the Tasman Sea.As well as flowing into the Myall Lakes, a number of important settlements exist on the river:...

 from Port Stephens

Port Stephens

Port Stephens is a large natural harbour located about north-east of Sydney in New South Wales, Australia. It lies wholly within the Port Stephens Local Government Area although its northern shoreline forms the boundary between the Port Stephens and Great Lakes LGAs...

 approximately 14 kilometres (8.7 mi) in a north-north-easterly direction. In the west it reaches the Pacific Highway

Pacific Highway (Australia)

The Pacific Highway is a major transport route along part of the east coast of Australia and is part of Australia's national route 1.It is 960 km long and links Sydney, the capital of New South Wales, to Brisbane, the capital of Queensland, along the coast, via Gosford, Newcastle, Taree, Port...

. The village of Tea Gardens is located at the southern most end of the locality, on the northern shore of Port Stephens on the west bank of the Myall River, which connects the Myall Lakes

Myall Lakes

The Myall Lakes are a series of fresh water lakes on the mid-north coast of New South Wales, Australia in Great Lakes Council. The lakes are adjacent to the coast about north of Sydney....

 to the port. It is located directly across the river from Hawks Nest

Hawks Nest, New South Wales

Hawks Nest is a suburb of the Great Lakes Council Local Government Area in the Hunter and Mid North Coast regions of New South Wales, Australia, located north of Port Stephens between the Tasman Sea and the Myall River...

 and the two lane Singing Bridge connects the two. Tea Gardens is located almost 220 km (137 mi) north of Sydney

Sydney

Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...

, about 10 km (6.2 mi) southeast of the Pacific Highway on the southern end of the Ramsar Convention

Ramsar Convention

The Ramsar Convention is an international treaty for the conservation and sustainable utilization of wetlands, i.e., to stem the progressive encroachment on and loss of wetlands now and in the future, recognizing the fundamental ecological functions of wetlands and their economic, cultural,...

listed wetlands of the Myall Lakes.

Wetlands

Due to a number of anthropogenic threats to the wetlands, residents of Tea Gardens have established a website to promote the sustainable use of local wetlands. These wetlands are well recognised as the foundation for the village's valuable fishing and tourism sectors.