Malabar, New South Wales

Malabar Sydney, New South Wales
Long Bay, Malabar
Malabar
Coordinates	33°57′56″S 151°14′55″E / 33.96556°S 151.24861°E / -33.96556; 151.24861Coordinates: 33°57′56″S 151°14′55″E / 33.96556°S 151.24861°E / -33.96556; 151.24861
Population	4,937 (2011 census)
Postcode(s)	2036
Location	12 km (7 mi) south-east of Sydney CBD
LGA(s)	City of Randwick
State electorate(s)	Maroubra
Federal Division(s)	Kingsford Smith
Suburbs around Malabar: Matraville Maroubra Chifley Malabar Tasman Sea Chifley Little Bay

Malabar is a suburb in south-eastern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia 12 kilometres south-east of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the City of Randwick.

Malabar is a coastal suburb situated around Long Bay. Malabar is mostly residential, but with large plots of land devoted to the Randwick Golf Course, the ANZAC Rifle Range and the Long Bay Correctional Centre. A small group of shops is located at Prince Edward Street, close to the intersection with Anzac Parade. To the north, the suburb is bounded by Malabar Headland which features the Malabar Battery, a World War II fortification complex.

Malabar was named after a ship called the MV Malabar, a Burns Philp Company passenger and cargo steamer that was shipwrecked in thick fog on rocks at Miranda Point on the northern headland of Long Bay 2 April 1931. The ship itself was named after Malabar, a region in the Indian state of Kerala famous for its history as a major spice trade centre. Prior to the wreck, the suburb was known as either Brand or Long Bay. Long Bay is reputed to have been the local Indigenous community's principal camping/healing place between Sydney and Botany Bay. Malabar Headland is the site of a number of Aboriginal engravings. Historian Obed West claimed in 1882 that Aboriginal people referred to Long Bay as 'Boora' and that a rock overhang on the south side of Long Bay had been used as a shelter by Aboriginals suffering from a smallpox epidemic in the late 1700s.

Following a petition by local residents, the new name was gazetted on 29 September 1933. There have been five shipwrecks on the headland at Malabar – the St Albans in 1882, the MV Malabar in 1931, Try One in 1947 and SS Goolgwai in 1955 (and an unnamed barge in 1955).