A Wambie Whopper: an inch of beef, lettuce, a rasher of bacon, throw a slice of cheese on top and a dollop of tomato sauce.

Sound familiar?

So familiar that fast-food giant Hungry Jacks took on the tiny family-owned Wamberal milk bar ... and backed off.

David and Goliath is no cliche here; this was a battle worthy of The Castle's Darryl Kerrigan.

The story of the Wambie Whopper is the story of the electorate which serves up its patties.

The family-run shops on street strip malls are the life-blood of Terrigal, where Wambie flips your burgers and Loretta does your hair.

Just 90 minutes from Sydney there is nary a multiplex in sight, but that does not mean one hasn't tried to squeeze itself in.

When Woolworths tried to bring in a 9000-square-metre centre into town in 2014, the community reacted in uproar.

It inspired a rare moment of bipartisanship from the electorate's two freshman candidates, Liberal Adam Crouch and Labor's Jeff Sundstrom, who both appeared at a community meeting organised to prevent the rise of the shopping centre.

"A monolithic Woolworths doesn't support a community, small businesses do," Mr Sundstrom said.

"Those stores in Saratoga would have been decimated if it had been approved," agreed Mr Crouch. "It was completely inappropriate."

But that's where the bipartisanship ends. Terrigal is smack bang in the middle of a string of seats on the Central Coast and the Hunter where sitting Liberal Party MPs were forced to resign or stand aside after revelations and allegations made in the Independent Commission Against Corruption.

"Sometimes I'd rather go out to Lord Howe Island, hide and not vote," said Terrigal resident of 40 years Luke Feeney. "As far as I'm concerned all politicians are hard to trust, they all talk like they are going to do good for the community then once they get elected they just stuff us all up."

Mr Feeney, like many others canvassed in the community, is referring to the disenchantment they experienced after Terrigal MP Chris Hartcher announced he would not recontest the seat following damaging allegations at the ICAC.

Liberal debutant Adam Crouch has been brought in to run in his stead. The damage caused by Mr Hartcher and nMr Crouch's relatively low profile have left some Liberals concerned that a 23.6 per cent margin might not be so safe after all.

Terrigal has been complicated further by advertising mogul John Singleton threatening to run candidates under the "Team Central Coast" banner, barracking for the "forgotten Central Coast".

Mr Singleton and  his supporters want a university, road improvements and more support for local businesses. Mr Singleton believed he had the numbers to take out Terrigal, but as of Thursday's deadline did not field an actual candidate. Mr Singleton spent $750,000 at the 2013 federal election backing former Test bowler Nathan Bracken for the seat of Dobell and Gosford mayor Lawrie McKinna, who ran in Robertson. Both candidates failed.

Mr Crouch is not fazed. "The Baird government has been doing a good job here", he says, listing the $100 million commitment to upgrade the Pacific Highway..

Mr Crouch said his first priority is to rebuild the problematic roundabout in Kincumber where queues 40 minutes long are not uncommon.

Aside from from roads, parking and small business,there is another big concern for voters in Terrigal: its lagoon.

"Thirty years ago we used to watch our kids swim, they used to jump off home-made jetties into very deep water," said Lorraine Murphy, the social chair at the Terrigal bowls club. "Nowadays no one can fish there, it's been trashed and eroded. It has to be dredged."

Ms Murphy's concerns are not unfounded. Terrigal lagoon was rated "very poor" or "unsuitable for swimming" and "very susceptible to fecal pollution" by a report from the NSW Department of Environment in 2014.

It has prompted fears that the popular tourist spot it flows into, Terrigal beach, may also become unswimmable.

"It has to be cleaned up," agrees Labor candidate Jeff Sundstrom. "If you come as a tourist and you can't swim, that is one thing that is going to stay in your memory."

Mr Sundstrom has made a foray into politics after 32 years as a firefighter.

He said he knows first hand the strain emergency services experience in the area, he is running on a platform of getting more nurses and firefighters into the electorate.

He said he would try to regain the trust of the community.

"But I would hate to think I would be elected on the fact that I'm not Chris Hartcher."

Your seat-by-seat guide to the NSW election:

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