History of The Darling Point Society
A historic house in Darling Point
In the 1970’s three Darling Point residents of Etham Avenue – former Premier Neville Wran, lawyer Jean Mullin and her husband Frank Mullin – successfully lobbied the Woollahra Municipal Council to change the zoning to stop the building of inappropriate high rise developments scarring the darling Point landscape.
In 1999 one Darling Point resident, book editor Barbara Rooke, called a public meeting to alert the Darling Point community about the hastening demolition of distinctive family homes along with the steady erosion of tree-lined streets that make Darling Point such an attractive place to live.
Supported by the then State MP Clover Moore, and a small critical mass of Councillors who spoke out the zoning crisis and the potentially devastating proposed removal of existing height and FSR (floor space ratio) statutory limitations, five residents stepped forward and the Darling Point Society was born.
Those five founding members who supported Barbara Rooke, who became the first president, were Sheila Johnstone, John Kay, Paddy Mullin, Gabrielle Upton and Owen Williams. Unlike other areas of Woollahra the peninsula had never had a residents’ group and the groundswell of support resulted in 220 residents becoming members within months.