[2] Berry attracts many tourists who come to enjoy the diversity of landscapes, including coastal beaches, rich dairy farming, and forested mountains.

In the 1810s, George William Evans, Government Surveyor, reported on the Berry district as a possible settlement and on the good stands of red cedar.

The locality was known as Broughton Creek from its beginning in 1825 as a private town and part of a large pastoral holding called "Coolangatta".

For much of its early history the town depended on timber cutting and dairy farming, with a tannery and boat building also present, but today, Berry thrives on tourism, with many souvenir shops, art galleries, antiques and collectibles shops, cafes, restaurants, and hotels.

[citation needed] Berry is the first truly rural town south of Sydney, and is situated on a coastal plain bounded by the escarpment to the west, and the Tasman Sea to the east.

The township of Berry is surrounded by the districts of Broughton Vale, Broughton Village, Foxground, and Toolijooa to the north, Harley Hill, Far Meadow, Jerry Bailey/Coolangatta and Back Forest to the east (with the beaches of Gerroa, Seven Mile Beach, and Shoalhaven Heads along the coast), Jaspers Brush and Meroo Meadow to the south, and Bundewallah, Bellawongarah, Cambewarra, Woodhill, Wattamolla, and the village of Kangaroo Valley are situated in the mountains to the west.

The winner is announced on the Saturday night of the annual show, in the centre of the main oval, in front of the crowd.

Zone winners then compete at the final stage, which is a weeks judging held at the Sydney Royal Easter Show.

This event, run by the Royal Agricultural Society, is not a beauty contest but rather a way of promoting and encouraging rural women.