Cremorne Point listed as one of Sydney's best secret walks

In today's Sydney Morning Herald. They list the Cremorne to Balmoral walk as one of sydney's best kept secrets. It's not a secret to the Cremorne Manor and it's guests. We are placed just steps from the start of the walk. Click here to go to the SMH website. I also like the description of Cremorne point being the 1880's equivalent of a rave party. Not much like that now I must say:


Link from Sydney Morning Herald:



Extract from Sydney Morning Herald: 

Mosman Foreshore

In 2006, the navy opened up the grounds of HMAS Penguin, allowing the completion of the walk from Chowder Bay across Georges Heights to Middle Head, and down to Balmoral beach.

It is now possible to walk all the way from Cremorne to the Spit, mostly on bush tracks.

The trail stretches for 10 kilometres and takes in some of the most stunning vantage points for Sydney Harbour. But as local author Claire Mitchell details in her new book about the walk,Mosman Meanders and Foreshore Flavours, there is much more to the walk than just heart-stopping vistas.

Mosman might be home to lawyers and bankers these days, but in the 1860s it drew a more bohemian crowd. From the early 1860s, several pleasure grounds were established on the foreshore of Mosman that attracted big weekend crowds. They arrived by boat at dusk to dance, drink and stroll through themed walks, ride carousels, or play skittles and other games.

The first of these was at Cremorne Point and by all accounts its "Ball Masques", illuminated by 5000 lamps and Chinese lanterns, were spectacular. But, by 1862, the event had turned into the Victorian equivalent of a rave party, judging by the description in the Herald:

"Its Ball Masque by moonlight were scenes of licence and vulgarity – the larrikin element too much to the fore."

Fairyland at Clifton Gardens, the most popular, opened in 1863 and Balmoral Gardens boasted a 24-metre roofed dance floor.