Hi,

my girlfriend and I came to Sydney yesterday and are going to stay 5 months for a study abroad. We currently live in a hotel in Randwick and are currently searching for an appartment.

Especially my girlfriend is very afraid of large insects. We went for a walk last night and had to discover that sydney's streets are full of cockroaches. We saw at least 50 of them on our short 15 minute walk. They were at least all 20 meters right on the road and the sidewalk. Sometimes, there were not only single ones but colonies with 5 or more moving around. It was really disgusting for us, since we do not have any insects like this in germany where we come from. My girlfriend screamed each time we saw one near us. Although we knew that there are roaches in syndey, we thought that they were only in the houses and not so visible outside.

Right now, we do not want to leave our home at night because of that. So my question is: Is it like this all over sydney? Or only in Randwick or even only on single roads (Our walk was in coogee bay road)? This would heavily influence our appartment choice.

Night time specifically is the only time they will appear on the pathways apart from that you are safe to walk around as you please. Day time there are zero cockroaches.

Just mind Sydney's cockroaches at night they don't like being stepped on! Haha just joking but yes we do have them, they won't harm you and in fact will attempt to run away even though they run in the most awkwardest parts where you can almost step on them. I guess it doesn't matter how clean your suburb is they will be there. I'm surprised you found them in "colonies" of 5 though, that is a bit much.