Joe Hildebrand: Mosman Council’s lack of new home builds makes housing crisis worse

A sign left at a Sydney beach sums up just ridiculous one part of our city has become. But as Joe Hildebrand reveals, it’s far from the only example.

Earlier this week the God-fearing burghers of Mosman made headlines when one of them attempted to reserve a picnic table on Balmoral Beach.

Needless to say this caused outrage among other Mosman residents, who declared the “entitled” note was in violation of various statutes, including council regulations, community spirit, democracy and human decency, etc.

This was, perhaps, a not entirely unexpected escalation in the Battle for Balmoral.

A year prior, Mosman’s Warringah Bowls Club was hit with a warning by Liquor and Gaming NSW after three residents complained of numerous disturbances, including a trivia night and a children’s jumping castle.

Indeed, children’s laughter appears to be a recurring problem for the long-suffering suburb.

Laughing kids playing outside? Not on Mosman’s watch!

In 2021, one Mosman resident received an anonymous note from a neighbour complaining about their children playing in the backyard during Covid lockdowns.

“Dear Neighbour,” it warmly instructed. “Please refrain (from) letting your kids out to the backyard before 9am.”

A note on a picnic table at Balmoral Beach ignited outrage this week.

Facing such unthinkable consequences of the Covid restrictions, one would think Mosman was at the forefront of tackling the pandemic.

Strangely, however, that same year Mosman Council closed its only Covid testing site after residents complained it was causing “excessive traffic”.

So just to recap the things Mosman residents are opposed to, we have so far: People on tables, notes on tables, children and public health.

They are, however, huge supporters of the housing crisis. Because while the battlers of Blacktown have built more than the 4280 homes expected of them under the federal-state housing agreement, Mosman has managed to build just 16 of their 100 target.

Yet, bizarrely, this is a suburb populated by the cream of Sydney’s professional class — captains of industry and the like.

So presumably they are educated enough to know that there’s a housing crisis crippling the country, they just simply don’t care.

After all, there are more important things to worry about. Like picnic tables and jumping castles.

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