Summer Bay

Summer Bay
Palm Beach, where Home and Away exterior shots are filmed
Home and Away location
Genre	Soap opera
Type	Fictional township
Notable locations	Summer Bay Surf Life Saving Club Pier Diner Salt Gelato Summer Bay High School Summer Bay Caravan Park

Summer Bay is the fictional town featured in the Australian soap opera, Home and Away. Palm Beach, north of Sydney, is used for the show's exterior scenes in order to depict the Bay. Between 2010 and 2014, the Lane Cove River Tourist Park in Macquarie Park was used as the location for filming of scenes involving the Summer Bay Caravan Park.

As with many real life Australian beaches Summer Bay has its own Surf and Lifesaving Centre (SLSC). It was first seen on screen in 1989. Over the years as well as serving its purpose as a centre for sea and land rescues it has been a place for the young people of the Bay to relax and socialise. Town meetings are often held in the Surf Club. It has also been used as a polling station and a private party/formal venue and has housed various food outlets, most notably the ill-fated Bonza Burger in 1998. Several characters have been trained as lifeguards over the years and surf competitions take place occasionally.

Current employees

Current employees

The third and newest incarnation of the Diner (previously known as the Bayside and Beachside Diner respectively), currently owned by Leah Patterson-Baker and Irene Roberts.

The original diner was the Bayside Diner run by Bobby Simpson and Ailsa Stewart and later Ailsa's husband Alf. For a while this diner included a Beauty Salon set up in a back room, this was run by Marilyn Fisher. This Diner was given a makeover in 1998 when it was revealed a Bonza Burger outlet was being set up in Summer Bay.

In 2000, the kitchen of the Bayside was badly damaged by fire, due to Colleen Smart mistakenly pouring water onto the flames of a chip-pan fire, making it worse and instead of repairing the building Alf and Ailsa decided to relocate the diner to an existing building in front of the beach, subsequently the diner became known as The Beachside Diner. Prior to the original diner fire Alf and Ailsa's home had been destroyed by a landslide and fire, as the new diner had a flat attached upstairs this is where Alf and Ailsa lived with their son Duncan, and Mitch McColl. Alf continued to live here following Ailsa's death. Alf sold his share of the business to Irene Roberts in 2004 but continued to live in the flat until 2006, when he moved back into Summer Bay House and the flat became home to many other Summer Bay residents for the next few years.