More about John Mystery

John Mystery was an author (his real name was Lester Sinclair) who created over 300 well-loved children's books in the 1930s-1940s. He built a castle in Illawong, which unfortunately does not exist anymore. The castle was known as Adventure Castle, and stood around where Cranbrook Place is today (at the tip of the Illawong peninsula). Apparently kids used to visit the castle via boat. There's still a little bit of evidence of the castle's existence around Cranbrook Place, and apparently, some of the sculptures from the castle's gardens can also be found. Here's a photo of a castle section that can easily be seen from the street. For more information on John Mystery's publications, click here. For more information on John Mystery's connection with Illawong, click here. When John Mystery wasn't writing children's books, he was composer Lester Sinclair, who apparently wrote many songs during the Second World War. For more info on the composer Sinclair, click here.

Albert Delardes Reserve update

The Illawong Alfords Point Progress Association, together with Sutherland Council and Thompson Berril Landscape Design, are in discussion about updating Albert Delardes Reserve. Amongst the info and possibilities discussed at the community meeting, it was mentioned that the last convict-built road was actually in the park, along with house ruins. So we went trekking to find these, see the pics below. Pretty interesting, but also pretty overgrown!

SANTA CAME TODAY!!!

Santa came to our house today, and the kids were really excited! We heard him off in the distance, thanks to a few fire engine sirens. He brought candy canes, and the fire engines were covered in Christmas decorations. Brilliant! Thanks guys at Station 20!

Some more of the locals

Here are some more photos of some of the gorgeous locals (well we are all a beautiful bunch).... I'm hoping to record their sounds soon as they've been particularly noisy lately...

Bushfires and Illawong

Doing my daily walk this morning, I noticed a sticker on the Illawong community centre (see picture)... "Bush Fire Neighbourhood Safe Place... A Place of Last Resort"!!! I guess this just reinforces to me that we are now in a bushfire prone area! The last major fires in the area was in 1994 (we had firsthand experience with this one, defending my husband's house just across the river in Lugarno at the time). We do have a local rural fire brigade known as 'Station 20'. Not only do they fight fires, but they also bring Santa each year.

Delicious pizza

Tonight was our first time at ordering take away from a local shop... we ordered four pizzas from Al Martinos, and they were DELICIOUS!!! We had to select the 'Illawong special' which had prawns on it (kids were very happy). We've heard a few things about this local well-known restaurant, but haven't yet been able to actually eat there and enjoy the service there, so we are now looking forward to booking in sometime in the future. We've heard that live music is sometimes featured (though looking at their site right now, there is a belly dancer being advertised). They've also got a very swish website so check it out!

We've moved in!

Well, we finally moved in and have been busy unpacking. So we haven't ventured out of the house too much, but the suburb is just amazing. We feel like we are living in a treehouse - the kookaburras have come and landed on our balcony for food several times, and we've been woken up each morning by birdsong. We've heard cockatoos, bell birds, kookaburras, plus many others. The river keeps glistening at us daily, tempting us to go down and have a look. We have a little bit of bush in our backyard (really very tiny bit of bush) and the kids for the first time in their lives are enjoying scrounging around in it. It really is very peaceful and quiet here, and dare I say this publicly, I have almost been converted to living in 'the shire' - well definitely Illawong.

Walking around Illawong

We're looking forward to walking around Illawong. Each time we've driven there, we've seen people using the cycle/walking path along Fowler Road, but there's also some bushwalks, and general lovely footpath walks to do. Here's a video by a seasoned walker of walking from Bangor to Illawong.

Some more weblinks about Illawong and photos of Illawong

Beautiful photo of Lugarno Seafood Restaurant (yum by the way, best seafood platters) by Jessie Leong - the restaurant is opposite Illawong and is where the old punt/ferry from Illawong to Lugarno used to travel.
Old photo of Mystery Castle - wow! However....it's not there anymore. More to come on John Mystery who built Mystery/Adventure Castle on the end of the Illawong peninsular.

First Impressions of Illawong

We drove around our new suburb (Illawong) today, getting to know the streets and enjoying the unique scenery of Illawong. Already we've seen a kangaroo bound across Fowler Road, bright red rosellas, and kookaburras on the rare telephone wires (all the services/cabling are underground, meaning that Illawong enjoys a bush setting with large trees that aren't rudely pruned). Here's some photos I took today around Illawong.... gorgeous.

Available info about Illawong

Here are a couple of links to info existing on the web about Illawong - check out the amazing photos.

Illawong wiki entry - basic historical info and stats
Illawong Community Directory - all about Illawong and Illawong services/business
Illawong Demographics - demographics about Illawong residents
Sydney City Blogspot - Illawong - photos of the river/s from Illawong
Sydney City Blogspot - Lugarno - photos looking across the Georges River to Illawong
The Trees - Land Sale - information about new release of land for sale in Illawong
Review of Illawong - including comments from Illawong residents
Illawong Stats - statistics about who lives at Illawong
Illawong Community Portal - info re services
Illawong Village - the local shops which have been updated since the wiki photos
Illawong Community Profile - Sutherland Shire Council info about Illawong
More census info about Illawong - from Sutherland Shire Council
More Illawong Stats - more stats for those who want to visit Illawong
Illawong Suburb Guide - from the Australian Suburb Guide site
Illawong Suburb Profile - by Coldwell Banker - mentions Cranbrook house which still stands today
Another review of Illawong - by local voices

About us and the Everything about Illawong blog

We are new to Illawong, and so will share all we discover about Illawong! We are really looking forward to moving here - Illawong is a beautiful suburb surrounded by bush and water. Discover Illawong with us!