The making of this street and its subsequent renaming was to end a long standing friendship.
The Pearl King, James Clark, bought land in the southern part of the peninsular where his pearl luggers used to tie up. It encompassed the area from the River to what is now Elystan Road, between Bowen Terrace and Turner Avenue. River Road ran around the River to one side of his property, where he built his home Wybenia in 1898. From the other side of his land Geoffrey Street ran down to Brunswick Street.
Alderman Allen Oxlade
In 1926 the new Brisbane City Council started plans to resume some of James’s land to extend River Road to join up with Geoffrey Street.
Alderman Allen Oxlade, first class rugby player, business man, member of the Oxlade family, and long-serving alderman for Merthyr, was a friend of James Clark and lived near-by in Elystan Road. Once Council made the decision in 1928 to resume the land, effectively cutting his land in two, James Clark never spoke to Oxlade again, according to Oxlade family members.
The final blow was made when Council named the new street after Alderman Oxlade; small wonder it killed the friendship. The legacy to us is one of the most desirable streets of New Farm.