Alfresco - pasta with tuna for these summer evenings

Equally good hot or cold but for picnics, either prepare at home
or add grilled tuna to a prepared penne salad.

TUNA:  Heart Friendly, Lowers Blood Pressure, Improves the Immune System, Helps with Weight Loss, Strengthens Your Bones, Improves Skin Health, etc; is delicious and quick to prepare.

Cook 2 cups penne in a large pan of lightly salted boiling water according to the packet instructions or until al dente. Drain well.

Meanwhile, heat 1 tbsp olive oil in a large frying pan over high heat. Add 500g tuna steak, cook, stirring occasionally, for 2—3 minutes until seared. Remove from the pan, cut into bite-sized pieces and set aside.

Return the pan to high heat and cook  2 garlic cloves, very thinly sliced; 2 long red chillies, seeded and finely chopped and 4 chopped anchovies.  Cook, stirring, for 1 minute.  Add a punnet of grape tomatoes and a handful of black olives and cook, stirring occasionally, for a few minutes, or until the tomatoes are slightly softened.

Add the hot pasta and tuna to the pan and gently toss. Add a handful of basil leaves and season with salt and pepper.

Great news for our harbour slopes

Hi there

Great news for our harbour foreshore slopes as explained in the article below from the Mosman Daily 28/7/2018.

The Harbour Trust and Mosman Council along with the vigilance of local residents have protected our 20 km of beautiful, natural foreshores from inappropriate development but this was threatened by recent legislation which meant that there was no longer a need for a development assessment for some one or two storey houses. 

Thanks go to Kate Eccles on behalf of Mosman Parks & Bushland Association and to MP, Felicity Wilson, for her support in ensuring that our valuable foreshores continue to be considered and preserved, by the extension of collaboration with Mosman Council. 

Cheers Claire

PEOPLE POWER WON THE DAY THEN AND CAN DO NOW. C'MON MOSMAN!!

Edwards Beach, Balmoral  was retained, 
thanks to People Power and Mosman Council 
which listened to, and was able to act upon local issues. 

Help to keep Mosman independent by attending the Mosman Community Meeting  - 

Monday 8 February, 6 pm at the the Mosman's Returned Service Club

FYI -'People Power' - 
Extract from 'THROUGH THE HEADS   to  Balmoral, Sydney'  

Shark Barriers at Balmoral -     One of the rejected  ideas was a 'Blackpool- style pier’ extending from the Island towards Wy-ar-gine, parallel with Edwards Beach. At the end of the pier there was to be a four towered edifice which would have dwarfed the future Bathers Pavilion and from there to the Wy-ar-gine rocks, a shark barrier was to be built.’ 

Fear of sharks  - shark barriers 

   From the cliff tops, silhouettes of Blue Pointers and Bronze Whalers were sometimes seen cruising over the white sandy bottom of the fish channel between Wy-ar-gine Point and the Spit.  

The danger was well known as Watkin Tench in 1788 wrote, “Sharks of an enormous size are found here.”  and “One of these was caught by the people on board the Sirius, which measured at the shoulders six feet and one of d a half in circumference…”


Various solutions had been suggested, one of which included ‘a Blackpool- style pier’  - see above which was rejected.  Another of Council’s initiatives was to erect a shark proof barrier along the full length of Edwards Beach.  This was to be made of turpentine piles and battens and would be revenue producing by  fencing in the beach and charging admission  for swimmers wishing to avail themselves to six acres of shark-free water.
The outcry from residents was deafening.  

“Hands off the Beach! Hands off the Beach!” was a public rallying cry in 1930, adopted by those who were opposed to Council’s initiative re their response to the problem of shark attacks.  A Beaches Defence Committee was formed against the turnstile component of the barrier plan and at an overflowing Town Hall meeting in 1930; the protest was led by Julian Howard Ashton, a son of Julian Rossi Ashton.  “We are not hostile to the Council.  We are opposed to any scheme which will fence off the beach against the public.”



In 1935 the Council accepted a tender for the steel net enclosure to be suspended between the Island and a tripod opposite the northern end of the Pavilion.   There were no shark attacks in Mosman waters during the next four decades probably because of the meshing program inside and outside the Heads and the proliferation of powered water craft.      Summarised from Mosman  - A History   Gavin Souter                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       

"Will our local issues matter under proposed amalgamation?"

I ask myself this question, 'Will our local issues matter?

The answer has to be, "Not as much."

KEEP LOCAL SERVICES LOCAL ** SIGN THE PETITION **
Mega councils mean less input on local matters that directly affect YOU. Call your local MP and tell them you want to keep your local services local. Sign the petition today > http://chn.ge/1L7wPyQ

‪#‎KeepCouncilsLocal‬ ‪#‎KeepItLocal‬ ‪#‎NoForcedMergers‬



We strongly urge the New South Wales government to engage in a more collaborative and consultative process before undertaking any action to amalgamate councils. Many of the proposed amalgamations involve councils that have clearly demonstrated that they are viable entities. The claimed advantages of scale resulting from council mergers are unsubstantiated while at a community level there has been little or no serious engagement in the amalgamation debate. 

Local government is the closest tier of government to the people and as such is most responsive to the needs of the community enabling them to have an input into matters that impact on them directly (such as development applications and strategic planning).

There is a very real risk that in creating larger councils residents will be alienated from the decision-making process and that sense of community will be eroded or lost. Participatory democracy at a local level is fundamental to good governance providing residents with a mechanism by which their voice can be heard.  This is best served by viable, smaller councils, rather than large, unwieldy bodies.

Dancing with Strangers

1788…
From Middle Head, the journals tell,
natives pointed Hunter’s party
 to the ideal place to land.
It was about Balmoral that Bradley wrote,
“These people mixed with ours and all hands danced together.”

Extract - Through the Heads to BALMORAL





Did you know that Antony Symons has created a wonderful sculpture called Dancing with Strangers? It pays tribute to the historical occasion on 29-jan-1788 when a group of Gamaragal hunters, armed with spears, signalled to a long boat under the command of Captain Hunter to land on a beach at Middle Head.

The Gamaragals knew Middle Head by the name of Cubba Cubba or Gubba Gubba, depending on how people wrote down the unfamiliar sounds made by First Australians who were living in greater Sydney on the day when 11 ships, flying the British flag, sailed through between North Head and South Head, turned left, then turned right at Bradleys Head and eventually dropped their anchors in Sydney Cove.

The exact location of this first contact between the British invaders to Sydney Harbour and the First Australians, whose ancestors had been in the greater Sydney region for at least 40,000 years, is not known definitely. But the reading of entries in logs and note books written that day indicate that the location is the north facing beach now known as Cobblers Beach.

Less likely, alternative locations are: 1) the southern end of Balmoral Beach, which is also labelled as Hunters Beach in early maps of the Middle Head coastline 2) Obelisk Beach on the east side of Middle Head, or at very long odds 3) Chowder Bay, which the First Australians knew as Goree.

To find out more about this sculpture and it's anticipated relocation -  visit:-

  www.cubbacubba.net.au