Foveaux St, Surry Hills

G’day, Charles Touma here and today I’m on Foveaux Street in Surry Hills to talk about how this amazing suburb that we know as Surry Hills evolved. I’m on Foveaux Street because the very first landowner in this area was Joseph Foveaux, whom the street was named after. Foveaux was originally granted 85 acres of land to the eastern end of Surry Hills in 1794 and a few weeks later another 20 acres, making it a parcel of 105 acres in total. At this stage, the Surry Hills area was considered suitable for farming and so it was distributed to army officers with the goal of creating food to feed the growing population. He used the land to establish Surrey Hills Farm, named after the Surrey Hills in England, and over the next few years he became the largest sheep and cattle owner in Australia. At the same time, his neighbour John Palmer, who had been the purser on the ship Sirius, amongst the First Fleet, was granted 70 acres which he called George Farm. In 1800, Palmer bought Surry Hills Farm from Foveaux but in 1814 got in financial trouble, forcing him to sell off his land for subdivision. In that subdivision, a large parcel was bought by Edward Riley, who became a very successful trader in India. Riley Street and Little Riley Street to my right were named after him. When Riley died, his huge estate was broken up into seven parcels which were split up amongst his heirs. This led to the development of Ann Street, Gipps Street, which we now know as Reservoir Street, Arthur Street, Foveaux Street, Collins Street, and Short Street. This all happened in 1848. At the time, the area was not well serviced by good roads, water, or good sewage systems. The only water supply was from a pump on Oxford Street. Water carriers would walk around the neighbourhood selling water to households door to door. Many people collected water in rum barrels and stored them in their backyard. By 1850, there was a mass influx of new residents into the area due to the gold rush in Bathurst which caused hyper inflation in the local rental market. For example, the rent on Bourke Street, which is just to my left, went up from eight shillings to 45 shillings in just three years and this all happened in 1851. Now, back to the present. I’ve been selling in the vicinity of Surry Hills for over 20 years. Some of my most recent sales around the area include 51 Marshall Street, a two-bedroom terrace, sold a week ago. The vendors Henry and Sophie gave me a very nice testimonial which I greatly appreciate. We sold 93 Reservoir Street, another two-bedroom terrace, which I sold nine months ago for $1,465,000. We sold 13 Ann Street, a two-bedroom terrace, which was sold last year for a whopping $1.55 million. I hope you found this quick dip into Surry Hills, interesting. Now, I’m Charles Touma. My office on Thurlow Street is always open for you to come in and have a chat.