Illawong waterfront redevelopment

It's been a while since I last posted - I think I'm meant to blog regularly! We're loving living in Illawong more and more, the bush is just so beautiful and it changes through the seasons. The exciting news recently is that the council have widened their redevelopment plans to include the Illawong waterfront area (from the old boat ramp at Old Fowler Road through to Albert de Lardes reserve), as well as a possible boardwalk down Old Ferry Road. Apparently this is the only accessible waterfront in the Menai district. Will keep an eye on this, thanks to the progress association. Here's their latest newsletter.

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!