Rockton, 1969 – Image courtesy of Picture Ipswich
Rockton House was built in 1854 for Mr William Craies, lately arrived from Scotland and first manager of the Bank of N.S.W., Ipswich. It started life as a single storey Colonial style house of hand-made brick. Mr Craies named his new house Rockton after an area near his home town of Edinburgh.
In 1862 it was bought by a business associate in Sydney who extended the cottage and rented it.
Mr Bulmore bought the property in 1877 and added the tower section in and closed the breezeway in the early 1890s to form a ballroom. After the death of Mr Bulmore, his family and cousins, the Armstrongs, lived at Rockton until 1916 when the large estate was subdivided and sold.
M. W. Haenke, architect and mine owner bought Rockton in 1918. Mr Haenke’s descendents still live in the property today.
Rockton is listed by the National Trust.
Information taken from “The Ipswich Heritage study”