Family ties with the land run deep
By SARAH ALLELY
SIMON McIntyre brought his daughter to Killalea State Park this week to revisit the area his great-great-grandfather farmed.
Only minutes after meeting Warilla surfer Brian Jones, the pair decided to form a lobby group to stop plans to lease the land to a private developer.
After reading reports in the Mercury, Mr McIntyre began ringing his "Killalea clan", spread around the country.
Edward Killalea owned several farms in the area, and leased land now part of the state park named after the former Shellharbour councillor, who died in 1872.
Mr McIntyre's mother's maiden name was Killalea, and the descendants meet for reunions at the park every few years. The Balgownie resident is outraged that Lands Minister Tony Kelly is on the brink of leasing three parcels of land to a company to build a tourist facility.
He questioned how much money the park's trust in charge of the land needed to cover maintenance.
"We'll set up a volunteer group to maintain the park. If it means taking a couple of dollars at the gate versus development, I'm all for that."
He was concerned that if the plans to lease the land to the Sydney investment company were not stopped now, there was no going back.
Mr Jones agreed and said it was irrelevant that the blocks made up 6 per cent of the park, as the positioning would change the views from the ridge and beach.
"It's a unique, very consistent, safe surf beach. In all my travels around the world, it's almost unparalleled for consistency and beauty," Mr Jones said.
Illawarra Mercury - 21 April 2007
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