Parked at the end of Killarney Drive (after a whistle stop tour of Ireland recalled in the local street names – Shamrock Pde, Donegal Rd, Clare Pl, Blarney and Connemara Ave, etc) and walked down the Flat Rock Track.
Inauspicious start with lots of weeds but it soon cleared to a fine fern and angophora forest with several precipitous rock faces above and below for good measure.
Made it to the base of the point but soon realised it was private property when we called out to a man working in the garden to ask if we could get out to the point and he replied “it’s private property.” There was a dog too. Woof. The whole place had the wife flashing back to images from a Jonestown documentary.
So retracing our steps we found another stairway leading up the steep hillside to Killarney Drive, where we were rewarded with a good view of the point and Middle Harbour.
We have since learnt (a.k.a. Googled up) that the building at Killarney Point was once a dance hall (late 1800s) and that there were other pleasure grounds around the corner in Bantry Bay that were set up by an Irishman who called the area the ‘Killarney of Australia.’ To be sure, to be sure, to be sure…
Philip Bull
Jan 8, 07:08 PM #
Your experiences with Killarney Point weirdly mirows mine a few days later. I grew up behind the point (1967 to 1979) and have vivid memories of roaming around this point, the Dance Hall, the Old Wharf and Picnic grounds. We used to go there for school excursions. It’s a great place, you never saw half of it, and it was always publicly accessible.
I went there with my kids the Sunday after New Year 2009 for the first time in nearly 30 Years. We meet Jim Jones at the base out the front of the Hall (see your photo). He was burning rubbish in front of the Dance Hall and immediately warned us off. I gently explained my childhood experiences to him and asked if I could show my threatening looking 4 and 5 year old children the Old Wharf where I fished as a kid. He got more heated, picked up a stick and explained he held the title, people need to get used to change and again told me it was his land (he waved his arms around and explained, it’s mine a 100 m each way). He also complained to me that people keep coming here (that must have been you) and they have to realize it’s not public land anymore. He was getting weird I left. He was more of a Captain Kurtz in my view.
This experience was out-of-step with my understanding of Point Killarney and friends who have rowed there more recently. The land is heritage listed as a Picnic Grounds and all the foreshore and most of the point is crown land. The site has never been zoned for housing, indeed it’s zoned Open Space Reserve. It appears that Mr Hexberg squatted on the land for years, became the tenant / caretaker for the Mosman Rower Club and then a few years ago when the Club found the planning restrictions too restrictive it sold the land to him. The Old Dance Hall was derelict in the 1970s when I was a kid and never used as a residence. Indeed the use of the site for housing is expressly prohibited under the Council LEP (I checked). There is something fishy going on down there, that was pretty obvious to me and confirmed with a bit of research. Point Killarney is too special a place for it to become a weirdo farm. Email me if you want more information.
Philip Bull
anthony smith
Oct 18, 12:04 AM #
would like your email as my family grew up there tooo
Phil walters
Dec 10, 11:52 AM #
I had the same experience sept 2010. I lived in Killarney Heights 1967-1990 and spent my youth fishing and camping at the point, However last sept, I took my 9yr old son to visit all the old haunts. The point was top of my list, only to be great two thirds the way down the track by some bloke yelling, TRESSPASING go back, and a dog barking. I was so disappionted as i had romanced my son with stories of the old dance hall and here is the good part, the creepy old caretaker Ha Ha. Anyway i agree with you ist a shame Regards Phil
JACK KENNEDY
Apr 27, 05:36 PM #
i was the caretaker of killarney picnic grounds in 1967/1968 for the OWNERS MOSMAN ROWING CLUB It is unique 4acres on Middle Harbour 6 miles from the Sydney GPO. tHE warringah Shire has restrictive uses on it and they have a history of corruption.It was sold by the M.ROWING cLUB AND SHOULD have been bought by the State of n,s,w, for Public Land. It is owned by a Company with Recreation in it’s name DODGY!!!!
Michael
Jul 19, 03:17 PM #
I went down to Killarney picnic point last sunday with my two year old son in my arms, wow, I didn’t expect him to be so heavy after walking from north of the killarney high school, but, like the other story tellers, I was keen to show him a good bushwalk. Same dispiriting experience, complete with statues of Buddha and various other bits and pieces around. I was a bit worried by the dog, but we ended up friends, sort of. The so called owner (well he never said he’s the owner) was brusqe but not impolite, and I gather he may be over the repeated experience of people asking to revisit their childhood fishing expedition experiences. It was one of those grown up disappointing sunday night realism moments. Well, anyway, imagine how the aboriginies must feel about property laws! I always thought it was our special place, but childhood fantasies get dashed. The good thing is that my son was a trooper in the face of the barking alsation, so at least it was a learning moment for him. I had all sorts of questions in my head about the “private property” thing. The guy said it was 15 yrs ago and that Mosman Rowing Club had it first, then it was sold. He didn’t say “I bought it”. He definitely didn’t want me to go to the old wharf, I kind of wondered what species of weeds might be growing down there. I remembered years ago that you could walk to the wharf sort of around the side of the “occupants” property…..if that’s what it was. The wharf was in my imagination at least, accessible. I thought all waterways were supposed to be accessible, but what would I know. Anyway I was a bit interested that there was no sign saying private property, only a sign at the very top of the steep part of the walk up at killarney Drive where that little lean to for supplies is……the sign says “Mosman Rowing Club and the Ted Bromley learning centre or something like that”. Wonder what they’re learning down there. Maybe it’s some sort of meditation centre, but it’s not too cool. I was miffed enough with the whole experience to write this, so I would be interested to hear what’s going on.
Hey, if it’s someone’s property, that’s understandable, but it wasn’t like that once, and where’s the sign saying you can’t go there?