Almost two years ago, on January 17, 2016, a development application to rezone land around Macquarie Fields House to allow for 100 homes was lodged with Campbelltown Council.
Many pundits were predicting a long and bitter fight to defend the historic home and property established around 1838 off Campbelltown Road at Glenfield.
Macquarie Fields House is of state and national heritage significance as one of the finest examples of early Australian residential architecture and to allow housing close up to it would have caused a major storm.
But at the last council meeting, when Cr Paul Lake asked how the application was going, the answer from the director was: “It’s gone – there is no application’’.
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♦ A couple of keen local AFL fans called in after Richmond won the 2017 flag on the weekend to remind us how Tigers super star Dusty Martin played one first grade game for the Campbelltown Blues around 10 years ago, when they still played in the top division in Sydney.
He would have been only 16 or so, and had moved from Melbourne to live with his father in Minto.
Naturally, he signed up with the local AFL club, the Blues, and after a couple of very impressive under 18s games for Campbelltown, Dusty was thrown into first grade.
Watching him play last Saturday in the AFL grand final it was obvious what a special talent he would have been even at 16.
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♦ And while on sport, what about our local under 16s cricket team, who play in the NSW Green Shield competition… this is how Ghosts secretary Jason Ellsmore described their trip to the South Coast over the weekend: “A weekend in the Huskisson Beach Front Motel staying with 14 mates, a picnic lunch on the Jervis Bay water front, an NRL Grand Final in the Jervis Bay Club Bistro over an evening dinner, a game of cards in the room before bed and a one-day match against wonderful hosts at Sanctuary Point Oval. A weekend away from mum and dad doesn’t get much better if you’re a member of the Ghosts Green Shield squad!’’
Jason says “even the local kangaroos came down to watch the action’’, the next day when our boys were too good for the local lads.
The young Ghosts will continue their preparation until the first Green Shield game in December on Raby #1 versus Sydney University.
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♦ Getting around the parliament wasn’t much of a problem for Dr Mike Freelander when he first arrived in Canberra last year after his election win.
But during a recent interview with the South West Voice he confessed he was indebted to another local MP for helping him get the hang of things.
“Chris [Hayes] has been very supportive of me, and very, very helpful in parliament because when you go there you think, they will give you a handbook, but it’s sink or swim, it can be a bit scary, the process, how it works, no one really tells you, you go to your first caucus and you’re supposed to pick it up by osmosis,’’ the member for Macarthur told us.
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♦ Small world story alert: yours truly filled in for an absentee player of a local golf competition and as we walked up to the first tee, who else was there to greet us but our old sparring partner from East Ward Progress Association, Michel Byrne.
Looking hale and hearty, we had a chat about the crazy old days of Liverpool politics and shared a beer afterwards.
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♦ Members of the Rotary Club of Ingleburn, which recently elected former Marsdens lawyer Drew Percival as its president, raised nearly $1,000 for Minto Public when they cooked up a storm at the school’s 150th anniversary celebrations. The Rotarians manning the barbecue would have been a bit sore the next day after cooking around 500 sausages during the day.
