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.
i have some photos of the castle including one of the bulldoser pushing it down,would you like me to email them
ReplyDeleteour family actually owned the castle
ReplyDeleteHi bob
ReplyDeleteWould it be at all possible if you emailed me with photos of mystery castle as my grandfather (lester) built mystery castle and my father lived there.
Cheers Jeremy Sinclair
Very very sad that it was demolished. I grew up in Illawong and used to love going up to the castle to visit a friend who lived there. We would run down the pathway to the river which had carvings in the stone along the way . I’m glad that Cranbrook is still there. I remember going to the Mardi Gras which was held in the beautiful grounds surrounding ding the house. Another historic house was a little stone cottage hidden in the bush on the Georges River side of Fowler Road. We lived at number 70-72.
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