Mosman Rotary’s Top Trumps card game fundraiser follows Mosman Monopoly success
BUOYED by the fundraiser success of Mosman Monopoly, Mosman Rotary is creating a Top Trumps card game to reveal the suburb’s stories and raise money for charity
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WHO knew Balmoral had such a colourful history?
There is a sensational myth about the purpose of its now demolished amphitheatre, while mystery surrounds the location of a polygamists’ cave.
The Rotary Club of Mosman will reveal the lesser known history and stories of the suburb with its new fundraiser project, a special edition of the card game Top Trumps.
The game is called “30 things you did not know about Mosman”.
The club had success last year with its Mosman Monopoly project which raised almost $60,000 for charities.
Rotarian Mark Alderson said Melbourne’s Top Trumps card game, “30 things to see in Melbourne”, inspired the idea for a Mosman version.
“We thought, why not do the same for Mosman?” he said.
“We were always going to do something for 2017 and this is that project.
“The Monopoly experience showed us how much the community engaged with knowing more about the suburb in which they live.
“It is the Rotary Club’s aim to help build a more connected community.”
The club aims to raise $10,000 from the new project.
Mr Alderson said the card game would be fun to play, as well as educational.
“We have a list of more than 50 unique things about the history of Mosman that we will cull down to the best 30,” he said.
“We are still researching the full details on each site.
“Mosman has a great history and many little known locations associated with that history.”
Mosman Camera Club will take some of the photographs for the game.
Winning Moves will manufacture 1000 units of the game.
People will be able to buy the game from stockists, including Mosman Newsagency, for less than $10 in May.
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HISTORICAL PLACES WHICH MIGHT FEATURE IN MOSMAN’S TOP TRUMPS CARD GAME
The Star Amphitheatre
A Grecian Doric-style structure built between 1923 and 1924 above Edwards Beach, at the northern end of Balmoral by the Order of the Star in the East, an offshoot of the International Theosophical Society.
An urban myth claims that the purpose of the amphitheatre was to witness the second coming of the messiah walking on water through Sydney Heads.
The amphitheatre was demolished in 1951 and replaced by a large block of 30 flats called Stancliff.
Ellery’s Punt
Peter Ellery settled opposite The Spit in 1849.
Travellers often asked him to take them across Middle Harbour.
Mr Ellery began a ferry service in the early 1850s, from the flat area next to the present day bridge, across Middle Harbour to the sand Spit on the Mosman side.
The last version of the punt, a steam punt manned by government employees, operated until the first Spit Bridge was built in 1924.
Curlew Camp Artists’ Colony
Clothing manufacturer Reuben Brasch and his brothers founded an artists’ camp on the eastern shore of Little Sirius Cove.
Artists from the Heidelberg School, including Arthur Streeton and Tom Roberts, first visited the camp in the early 1890s and stayed there on and off.
In 1894, Roberts painted Mosman’s Bay, depicting an idyllic scene on the water.
Now reputed to be worth $8 million to $10 million, it is one of the treasures of the Hinton collection in the New England Regional Art Museum.
The camp was abandoned in 1912 when the site was chosen for the new Taronga Zoo and virtually forgotten.
Bungaree’s Cave at Balmoral
Bungaree, a well-known liaison between Aborigines and colonialists, is said to have lived in a cave, near Balmoral Park and the carpark, where he made a home with six wives.
Bungaree is better known for being in charge of a farm for indigenous families, which Governor Macquarie established in 1815 at Middle Head.
He was also famous for circumnavigating Australia with Flinders.
Athol Pavilion, also known as Athol Hall
Built on the site of an earlier dance hall, the nearby Athol Arms (later Athol Gardens) Hotel, very close to the current parking area, was first recorded in 1863, later being extended.
The lawns surrounding the hall were a well-known “pleasure garden”.
A new owner, J.T. Coffill, took over the Athol Gardens Hotel and Pleasure Gardens in 1880. Two years later it lost its dancing permission and licence.
It became the Athol Temperance Hotel.
Sydney Ferries acquired Athol Gardens in 1906.
Billy the dog statue at Balmoral
Billy went on the daily rounds with his master, a Mosman Council street sweeper, between 1959 and 1978.
The statue was a gift to the people of Mosman as a reminder of the reliance of animals on man and the debt mankind owes to animals.
(Sources: Local Studies Service at Mosman Library, NSW Office of Environment and Heritage, Mosman Historical Society and Monument Australia)
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