Tur audio Little Rockley

Introduction:
Every street tells a story. The people that lived there and their lives, the councils and architects that shape them, all become a part of the fabric of the community. This small quiet street in front of you, flanked by the 2 gardens, may seem unassuming but it has a long history in connection to European settlement of Melbourne. From the first land sales of Prahran parish in 1840 to the 1940s. Let’s look at 100 years that shaped our neighbourhood of Little Rockley.
 
When Melbourne was first settled by Europeans, this tract of land was known as Little Rockley estate, sold as a part of the first land sales in 1840 for 26pounds. It was one of four great houses built in the area. Como, Buona Vista, Tivoli and Little Rockley looked over the river and were large enough plots to have market gardens.
 
It was Occupied early on by Major St. John, the infamously fiery Police Magistrate, and later was even a school for a brief period. It didn’t become the street that we see today until 1908 when the estate of the Howey family was subdivided and sold off. The council at the time purchased the front blocks for a public park and the road began.
 
“…the neighborhood should become one of the finest within the municipality of Prahran.” Malvern Standard 1908, ‘Rockley Estate’, Malvern Standard, Saturday 9 May 1908, page 3, accessed May 2019, <https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/66382142>