Domain Parklands, Melbourne: Lord Mayor Robert Doyle wants hideous rockery gardens gone

IT HAS been described as “the wart of the city” and Melbourne’s Lord Mayor wants to destroy it immediately.

The Rockery gardens, on Linlithgow Avenue in the Domain Parklands, have been standing for 114 years but Lord Mayor Robert Doyle believes they are an eyesore.

It’s not the first thing he has wished to bulldoze either — last month he said Etihad Stadium would be demolished in the next 20 years.

The 3AW Breakfast team have since given Mr Doyle the nicknames “demolition Doyle” and Bob the unbuilder”.

The bad news for Mr Doyle is the rock structure he despises is protected by the Victorian Heritage Register.

“If I want to blow it up I can’t,” he told 3AW.

Even if he could, Mr Doyle said he would probably need a nuclear device to move the volcanic rock.

While the Rockery gardens may be liked by some, it’s still a far cry from the Stonehenge.

It is a tiered structure, supported by uneven pillars.

Mr Doyle said the “naturalist-style grotto”, which replicated caves used by humans in modern, historic and prehistoric times, was popular in the 1900s and more than 45,000 cars drove past it daily.

“It’s absolutely hideous,” he said.

“It looks like a giant skin eruption that needs to be dermatologically treated almost immediately.”

Despite his strong dislike for the landmark, he still gets a kick out of driving past it.

“It’s actually quite amusing when you go past it,” he said.

“I think for God’s sake whoever built that thought ‘there’s a wonderful addition to the city that will stand the test of time’ — because it has.”

The Rockery was built to be a structure for a garden and Mr Doyle told 3AW he imagined there were plantings within it.

“Perhaps we can plant something that will cover the whole lot, that would be useful,” he said.

The Rockery was built in 1901 to add some decoration to Alexandra and Lintlithgow avenues ahead of the Federation celebrations in May, attended by the Duke of Cornwall and Princess Mary.

Newspaper reports at the time the Rockery was built said something very different to Mr Doyle.

Duke of York, later George V, said the Rockery gardens were “pretty rockwork foundations, topped by shrubbery, and adorned on the underpart with most realistic stalagmites”.

Mr Doyle said council was currently preparing a Master Plan for the Domain Gardens.

“This demonstrates you don’t have to be pretty to be protected,” he said.

“They may be historically important but I think they’re hideous.”

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