Prior to European settlement the immediate area of what is now Cunningham Street South Yarra was a beautiful stretch of timbered country with lots of game and bird life and the area around where the Imperial Hotel now stands on Chapel Street was a very popular place for Corroboree’s. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corroboree
In 1849, successful businessman George Augustus Robinson purchased the land at the Government Auctions. The land was soon occupied by brick makers quarrying for clay, when they left the local children swam in the water filled clay pits.
The Cunningham Street area became the Palermo Dairy. Alexandra McLaren purchased 10 acres and shops were erected along the Toorak Road frontage. A later dairyman was Edward Cox who was there for many years and was regarded as the best horse and cow vet in Melbourne.
The last owner was the Cunningham family who subdivided the land and part of the western side of Cunningham Street was auctioned by Alfred Bliss on 28th November 1874 as “The Palermo Estate”. At that stage the eastern side from Oxford Street to Toorak Road was still a paddock.
Cunningham Street was named after the family who continued to run a dairy shop on the Toorak Road corner into the 20th century.
Recent Sales in Cunningham Street
| 8 Cunningham Street, South Yarra | $1,900,000 | 23 March 2019 |
| 209/38 Cunningham Street, South Yarra | $649,000 | 3 December 2018 |
| 18 Cunningham Street, South Yarra | $2,575,000 | 9 November 2018 |
| 109/38 Cunningham Street, South Yarra | $739,000 | 10 August 2017 |