Think of Berry, if you like, as a sort of coastal Mudgee. City refugees have flocked here in the past ten or so years, lured by the ocean just five minutes away, an emerging winery scene, the magnificent hinterland of rolling farmland, some of it with distant views of the sea and the town itself, small enough to be personal, yet with a variety of shops and boutique businesses only dreamed of in suburbia.

Just on two hours south of the centre of Sydney, it's no wonder people have 'emigrated' here. Those who don't move in permanently, take up residence at weekends and in holiday periods, sunning themselves at the footpath tables of the thirty or so eateries in the town.

That's way too many for the official resident population of around 1600. But numbers swell enormously in tourist season as people stroll Queen Street, the one main street, past the evocatively named Bunyip Inn Guesthouse or the Great Southern Hotel - beloved of bikies, with the road sign to everywhere in the driveway.

To some it's all a little too precious. They feel that the meticulously lettered signs and quaint names have made a folk-art curiosity out of the town. Yet those who stop short fifteen minutes' away at Australia's Tidiest Town, Kiama, with its blowhole, or zip on to Nowra, the shopping town for the region, miss a lot if they bypass Berry.

You could come to Berry and have a coffee, pick up some needlepoint and a teddy bear and move on south, but locals are keen for you to stay. So keen that new places are opening and the town 'centre' is stretching south along the main road.

Grant Symonds left his PR job with a major international airline a year or so ago, deciding to leave the city and head for the country. He found the four-star Berry Village Boutique Motel up for sale and, impressed by the clean modern facade and what he sensed was a smart business move, took it over. The rooms (some with spas) are as good as many you'd find in hotel chains, and the position at the edge of the town centre, and the separately run Pavilion Bar and Restaurant in the same premises, is an excellent drawcard as well.

Just across the road, on Albany Street, a neat row of four businesses is looking to extend Berry's shopping options. Although the town has plenty of restaurants and cafés, one couple felt there was room for one more.

Gia and her husband Fabio, a cheese-maker fresh from Italy, had a dream of setting up a place that could trick you into feeling you had simply nipped off the autostrada for a quick bite.

Cavese Trattoria does not deliver the standard Aussie-Italian fare ("Why do people want pineapple on their pizzas?" Fabio asked Gia in bewilderment, soon after they arrived) but the home-made handmade soft cheeses, sausages, biscotti and even limoncello, could be reason alone to travel to Berry and dine here.

Next door, Easy on the Earth, an organic shop, has colourful hemp shirts swinging in the breeze outside, and soaps, fruit, vegetables, oils and - naturally - anything that's natural, inside.

Then there's Canterbury Lace, to add an olde world elegance and cosiness to the group and Barking Mad, crammed with canine-abilia (and plenty for cats too) even including life vests for dogs, should Fido choose to mix it with the surf.

I hadn't been to Berry for some time, so I was amazed at the way the town is stretching, awakening to more possibilities. I breakfasted at the Berry Tea House, where the range of 70-odd teas, packed in distinctive lime or black packaging, was eye-catching against the lime green feature wall. Effective as it was though, it couldn't sway my attention from the sumptuous apple cake with ricotta and my special pot of Aussie breakfast tea in front of me.

Yes, I'll admit it. I shopped on ? and on. Some glass from Leadlight Reflections, a quick flit around Plateau Pieces and its African imports next door, a lengthier browse at Bountiful of Berry with its houseful of antiques and bric-a-brac, plus outside, one of the best collections of those very trendy pale green French-style metal outdoor chairs and tables and the wire stands and things that go with them.

Finally, around the corner from Bunyip Inn I located the wood fired bakery I'd heard about, in an unassuming whitewashed building. Sadly, it was closed that day, but someone was renovating the kitchen.

As I watched, the owner dropped in and told me some really great news: this home of addictive, hand crafted, wood-fired, organic sourdough bread is planning to add a café. In time for Christmas.

Now there's my excuse to go back to Berry. And very soon.