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Brighton Bathing Boxes

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Brighton Bathing Boxes
Several of the bathing boxes in 2016
Brighton Bathing Boxes is located in Melbourne
Brighton Bathing Boxes
Location of the house
in Greater Metropolitan Melbourne
Map
Alternative names
  • Brighton Beach Bathing Boxes
  • Brighton Beach Huts
General information
StatusCompleted
TypeBeach huts
Architectural style
Victorian
LocationDendy Street Beach, The Esplanade, Brighton, City of Bayside, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Coordinates37°55′08″S 144°59′14″E / 37.9188°S 144.9873°E / -37.9188; 144.9873
Year builtFrom c. 1850s–
Completed
c.1850; 176 years ago (1850)
LandlordCity of Bayside
Technical details
Material
Sizec. 100 individual huts
Floor area20 to 25 m2 (220 to 270 sq ft) each hut
Official name
The Brighton Bathing Boxes and Dendy Street Beach
TypeRegistered place
Criteriaa., d., e., g.
Designated2 August 2018
Reference no.H2369
HO143
Category
Recreation and Entertainment

The Brighton Bathing Boxes, also called the Brighton Beach Bathing Boxes and the Brighton Beach Huts, are a collection of approximately one hundred beach huts located adjacent to The Esplanade, fronting Dendy Street Beach, in Brighton, in the City of Bayside, in the south eastern suburbs of Melbourne, in Victoria, Australia. The huts extend over 500 metres (1,600 ft) along the beachfront, behind the Dr Jim Willis Reserve, the last vestige of natural vegetation along Brighton's foreshore;[1] in an area of high Aboriginal sensitivity protected by both State and Federal legislation.[2]: 17 

The highly-colourful huts are a significant tourist attraction for the area.[3] Located on Council-owned land, the owners of each bathing box are individuals or families – some of whom are members of the Brighton Bathing Box Association Inc., a non-profit organisation – and the bathing boxes are often passed down through generations;[4] however, they are occasionally auctioned. Seen as a life style investment, limited supply and high demand has driven prices up from $58,000 in 2000 to approximately $400,000, as of 2025.[5][6]

Erected from c. 1850 and then ongoing, on the traditional lands of the Bunurong people,[7] the collection of beach huts and their setting were added to the Victorian Heritage Register on 2 August 2018 in recognition of their historical, architectural, aesthetic, and social significance.[8]

History

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Bunurong people

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The Bunurong people, also known as the Boonwurrung, have a strong ongoing connection with the coastline of Port Phillip and Dendy Street Beach. Their shell middens and stone tools have been observed and remain at Brighton Beach.[9][10]

Described in 1925 as, "between Middle Brighton Baths, and the Bluff, at Brighton Beach ... In these middens, "scrapers", firestones, stone axes (nearby), the charred broken shells of mussels, "mutton fish" (Haliotis), cockles and periwinkles, are found in abundance. Sometimes splintered bones, perchance those of kangaroo or wallaby. Also lumps of ochre ... are found in the remains of these campfires."[11] As of 2014, it was noted that a large midden of shell and charcoal extended behind the beach huts.[7] The whole of the Brighton foreshore is designated an area of high aboriginal sensitivity protected by both State and Federal legislation.[2]: 17 

Beach huts

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The first bathing box was built in the 1860s further along the Brighton coastline, to protect the modesty of bathers.[12] In the 1890s there were six bathing boxes on Dendy Street Beach[13] and a single bathing box on Middle Brighton Beach.[14]

By 1907, the number of beach huts on the Dendy Street Beach had increased to seventeen;[15][a] and approximately twenty three ratepayers were noted as owning bathing boxes along the Brighton coastline at that time.[16][17] By the mid-1910s, the number of bathing boxes had increased to approximately forty on Dendy Street Beach[18] and twenty eight bathing boxes on Middle Brighton Beach.[19]

The number of bathing boxes significantly increased after World War I. By 1933, there were 246 bathing boxes on Dendy Street Beach and Middle Brighton Beach. On Middle Brighton Beach, Bathing Box No.1 was near Park Street and No 111 just south of Wellington Street. On Dendy Street Beach were Boxes No.132 to No 267.[17] Between 1935 and 1936, work was completed to move the bathing boxes to the top of the beach instead of the high-water mark, where they were located previously.[20] In May 1937 Brighton Council decided that bathing boxes on other beaches, in particular Middle Brighton, were to be moved to Dendy Street Beach to allow construction of a sea wall.[21]

Initially built as changing rooms to maintain the modesty of bathers, in the latter part of the twentieth century and beyond, they have been used to store beach toys, kayaks, stand-up paddleboards, BBQs and beach furniture. They do not have water or electricity connections. Owners are allowed to repair and restore the boxes including painting the boxes a variety of different bright colours.[5][4] As of September 2026, there were 96 boxes,[3] with the additional boxes build by the City of Bayside Council.[22]

Erosion threatens some of the Brighton Bathing Boxes and sandbags have been installed to protect them.[23] The Dendy Street Beach has also been renourished artificially.[24] However, the seasonal movement of sand along the coast still occurs, gradually moving the sand north until it is trapped behind the Brighton Yacht Club marina.[25]: 30–31  Sea walls, groynes and breakwaters have had permanent adverse effects along the Port Phillip coastline. Consequently, rather than add to the groyne system it is preferable to undertake regular beach renourishment that supports natural processes.[26]: 15–18 

The Brighton Bathing Boxes with the Middle Brighton pier and breakwater, and the Melbourne city skyline in the background

Description

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The beach huts are built in a uniform way with Victorian features, painted weatherboard and corrugated iron roof, due to a Planning Scheme Heritage Overlay. Owners are allowed to paint their boxes causing a mass of different bright colours.[27] They do not have water or electricity connections;[22] are unable to connect solar panels or any form of motor. The owners are required to pay an annual license fee plus rates on the box and must also take out public liability insurance cover.[4]

Location

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The bathing boxes are located on Dendy Street Beach between Gould Point (opposite Gould Street) and Rocky Point, adjacent to the Brighton Lifesaving Club.[17] The land from The Esplanade to the high water mark of Dendy Street Beach is within the Brighton Beach Reserve by the Brighton Land Vesting Act, (Vic.) 1877.[28]

A sign describing the flora and fauna in the Dr Jim Willis Reserve

Behind Dendy Street Beach lies the Dr Jim Willis Reserve, an area of geomorphological and regional vegetation significance.

The historical sea levels of Port Phillip can be interpreted at this location. At the end of the last ice age rising global sea levels flooded Port Phillip to approximately one to two metres (three to seven feet) higher than the sea level, as of 2011.[29] According to the information sign at this location, the waves of Port Phillip are likely to have actively eroded the escarpment of the Brighton Coastal Plain.[1]

Approximately 2,000 years ago,[when?] the entrance to Port Phillip was blocked to the ocean and the salt water gradually evaporated. A flat grassy plain with a central lake fed by surrounding rivers emerged on the previously submerged land . As is the oral history of the Bunurong and supported by recent scientific research, the ocean again flooded Port Phillip about 1,000 years ago.[when?][29] Sea levels were lower at this time and likely never reached the base of the escarpment enabling Holloway Bend beach and Brighton dunes to develop and protect the previously eroding coastline.

A tiger snake at Dendy Street Beach, 2014

The reserve contains a plant community of regional significance being the last vestige of natural vegetation to be found anywhere along Brighton's foreshore. Plants include tea tree, coastal wattle, boobialla, coastal pomodoris, bower spinach, running postman, black anther flax lily, wattle lomandra, drooping she oak, mat rushes, coast salt bush, coast spinifex, black wattle, pink coast noon flower, and seaberry salt bush.[1] The foreshore vegetation near the beach is a habitat for a variety of native animals including the superb fairywren, shrub wren, little wattlebird, micro bat, blue tongue lizards, and tiger snakes, as well as introduced species such as the red fox, rabbit, and brown rat.[1][30]

According to the Victorian Fisheries Authority, the intertidal zone in Port Phillip Bay, from the high-water mark to where the water is 2 metres (6 ft 7 in) deep at any time, is a protected area; and crabs, marine snails, sea urchins and shellfish cannot be collected. This includes molluscs such as abalone, limpets, periwinkles and turbo shells. Restrictions and penalties apply if removed from the beach or water.[31]

Environmental issues

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Construction of the boxes

[edit]

Possibly the first dispute over the construction of a bathing box occurred in 1862 over a bathing box illegally erected on private property, and subsequently moved without appropriate approvals to Crown Land below the high tide mark.[32]

During the 1920s and 1930s the large number of bathing boxes, storm damage[33] and their disrepair, prompted calls to abolish the granting of licenses and remove them from the beach.[34][35]

In 1983, the Coastal Caucus Committee decided to phase out 2,000 buildings along the Port Phillip Bay, including the Brighton Bathing Boxes. Amongst others, the Brighton Bathing Box Association decided to fight the decision, and in 1985 the Bathing Boxes were recommended for retention, and added to the Victorian Heritage Register in 2000.[8]

In 2009, the City of Bayside Council built nine more boxes at the southern end of the beach to raise money during the Great Recession, increasing the number to 88.[22] This was done despite the objections of heritage groups, as boxes previously built there had flooded.[23] By 2017 the Council had built another five boxes, raising the total number to 93. In 2019 the Council spent hundreds of thousands of dollars[clarification needed] protecting those boxes when the foundations of those boxes were severely compromised by erosion.[36]

In 2019, the Draft Marine and Coastal Policy document proposed that the boxes be removed or relocated, causing backlash online and condemnation from the Victorian Liberal Party and Member for Brighton James Newbury, with Newbury calling the plan 'crazy'. Acting Premier Lisa Neville accused Newbury of fearmongering, stating, “This is a nonsense coming from the Liberal Party.”[37][38]

Coastal processes, geomorphology, and erosion

[edit]

Some of the each huts are at threat of erosion, which has caused sandbags to be installed to stop flooding.[23] Sand has also been trucked in, in an attempt to stop erosion and replenish sand on the beach.[24]

Originally the erosion of cliffs along the coast of Port Phillip supplied the sand that formed the beaches of the Brighton Beach coastline.[26]: 12  The construction of seawalls and other erosion management works has stopped the supply of sand and the beaches are no longer being naturally replenished.[2]: 39  Beaches are now renourished artificially including Brighton Beach (1987), Dendy Street Beach (1982 -1983 and 2022) and Middle Brighton Beach (1982–83).[12] However, the complex and interrelated processes by which sand moves along the coast still occur, but with sand from the renourished beaches.[25]

Wind-driven waves move sand up and down the coast both onshore and close inshore. In summer sand is moved to the north, and in winter to the south.[2]: 39  Within this seasonal oscillation, there is a gradual accumulation and then loss of sand northwards along Brighton Beach coastline. Natural reefs off Holloway Bend and Dendy Street Beach temporarily capture the sand and slow its movement northwards. These coastal processes are demonstrated by sand moving north past Green Point to create a sand spit and lagoon across Holloway Bend between 1987 -1990.[25]: 30  Also the gradual build up of sand at the renourished Middle Brighton Beach and its movement north past the manmade Park Street groyne to create beachlets can be readily observed.[39]

Northward sand drift from Holloway Bend and Dendy Street Beach is captured by the groyne at Middle Brighton Beach until it has accumulated to its tip. The sand then moves past the groyne progressively filling and bypassing the smaller reefs and groynes to the north. Ultimately the sand collects behind the Brighton Yacht Club marina in a triangular spit.[25]: 30–31  The small amount of sand that escapes that entrapment doesn't collect along the seawall north of the yacht club, but is moved deeper into the bay by strong reflective waves from the seawalls. Once further offshore, the predominant sand drift of Hobsons Bay bypasses the beaches of the Brighton coastline, and moves the sand south to beyond Rickets Point Beaumaris.[25]: 8 

These coastal processes mean that where a groyne, breakwater or other structure prevents waves from a particular direction but allows others, sand will accumulate in the sheltered portion of the foreshore. The impact of sea walls, groynes and breakwaters has had adverse effects. Rather than add to the groyne system it would be preferable to undertake regular beach renourishment.[26]: 15–18 

In response to climate change and to manage future coastal processes it has been recommended that "attempts to stabilise a coastline by building solid structures such as sea walls, or dumping boulder ramparts, should bear in mind that a rising sea level is in prospect, and that coastline processes would resume with the sea at a higher level and these structures submerged. On the other hand, beaches can be renourished at higher sea levels, and the use of artificial beaches to halt coastline recession is a better long-term strategy than building solid structures."[25]: 62 

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See also

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Notes

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  1. ↑ Plans are dated 1907 but likely to based on earlier survey work.

References

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  1. 1 2 3 4 Dr Jim Willis Reserve. City of Bayside (Information sign). The Esplanade, Brighton.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Brighton Foreshore Coastal Management Plan. City of Brighton (Report). 1992.
  3. 1 2 "Brighton Beach Bathing Boxes: Visit our iconic boxes". Bayside City Council. n.d. Retrieved 4 October 2026.
  4. 1 2 3 McGuirk, Rod (25 September 2025). "Australia's iconic beach boxes lack the comforts of home but can cost more than a house". The Independent. Retrieved 4 October 2026.
  5. 1 2 "Thinking outside the (beach) box". The Age (Financial Review Prestige Magazine). 26 February 2025. p. 16.
  6. ↑ Dobbin, Marika (1 February 2010). "$455,000 - that's thinking outside the beach box". The Age. Retrieved 4 October 2026.
  7. 1 2 Eidelson, Meyer (2014). Melbourne Dreaming A Guide to Important Places of the Past (2nd ed.). p. 114.
  8. 1 2 "The Brighton Bathing Boxes and Dendy Street Beach, Victorian Heritage Register (VHR) Number H2369, Heritage Overlay HO143". Victorian Heritage Database. Heritage Victoria. Retrieved 4 October 2026.
  9. ↑ "STONE AGE AT BRIGHTON". The Herald. No. 14, 373. Melbourne. 10 April 1922. p. 15. Retrieved 6 October 2026 – via Trove. National Library of Australia.
  10. ↑ "Aboriginal "Kitchen Midden"". The Argus. No. 28, 056. Melbourne. 22 July 1936. p. 10. Retrieved 6 October 2026 – via Trove. National Library of Australia.
  11. ↑ Cooper, J. B. (1925). "Chapter 3". History of Brighton. Vol. 1. pp. 78B-79, manuscript.
  12. 1 2 "History & timeline". Brighton Bathing Box Association Inc. n.d. Retrieved 20 August 2022.
  13. ↑ Evans, Ethel (attrib.) (1892), Brighton Beach, Brighton Historical Society Collection{{citation}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  14. ↑ Mather, John (1897). Evening Brighton Beach (possibly titled 'Reflections'). National Gallery of Victoria.
  15. ↑ Town of Brighton Detail Plan No's 2127, 2129, & 2199. Melbourne and Metropolitan Board of Works (Report). 1907.
  16. ↑ "Municipal Notes". Brighton Southern Cross. Victoria, Australia. 23 March 1907. p. 6. Retrieved 6 October 2026 – via Trove. National Library of Australia.
  17. 1 2 3 Larkin, J. P. (1933). Plan of Port Phillip and Foreshore of Brighton from Pt. Cole to Green Pt. Department of Ports and Harbours (Report).
  18. ↑ Dendy St. Beach, Middle Brighton. Rose Series Postcard. 1915. (black and white postcard).{{cite AV media}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)
  19. ↑ Middle Brighton looking North. Photograph Image Street. 1912. (black and white photograph).{{cite AV media}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)
  20. ↑ "WIDER BEACH AT BRIGHTON". The Argus. No. 27, 896. Melbourne. 16 January 1936. p. 14. Retrieved 5 October 2026 – via Trove. National Library of Australia.
  21. ↑ "Brighton Bathing Boxes To Be Moved". The Sun News-pictorial. No. 4577. Victoria, Australia. 22 May 1937. p. 18. Retrieved 6 October 2026 – via Trove. National Library of Australia.
  22. 1 2 3 Greenblat, Eli (25 February 2009). "Brighton shacks to help bolster council funds". The Age. Retrieved 20 August 2022.
  23. 1 2 3 Brook, Stephen (23 April 2022). "Send in the sand: the battle to save the Brighton bathing boxes". The Age. Retrieved 20 August 2022.
  24. 1 2 Brook, Stephen (30 April 2022). "Brighton bathing box beach to shut for weeks to shore up its sand". The Age. Retrieved 20 August 2022.
  25. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Bird, E. (2011). Changes on the Coastline of Port Phillip Bay.
  26. 1 2 3 Bird, E. C. F. (1974). Man's Impact on the Melbourne Coast.
  27. ↑ "Welcome to the Brighton Bathing Box Association Inc. Home Page". 14 April 2009. Archived from the original on 14 April 2009. Retrieved 20 August 2022.
  28. ↑ Brighton Foreshore Association Inc v Bayside City Council /284.html [2021 ] VSCA 284, Victorian Supreme Court of Appeal (Victoria)
  29. 1 2 Holdgate, G. R.; Wagstaff, B.; Gallagher, S.J. (2011). "Did Port Phillip Bay nearly dry up between 2000 and 1000 cal.yr BP? Bay floor channeling evidence, seismic and core dating". Australian Journal of Earth Sciences. 58 (2): 157–175.
  30. ↑ Snake warning signage. City of Bayside (Warning sign).
  31. ↑ "Intertidal Zone Fishing Restrictions". Victorian Fisheries Authority. n.d. Retrieved 23 April 2025.
  32. ↑ Bates, W. (1983). A history of Brighton (2nd ed.). p. 348.
  33. ↑ "WRECKAGE AT BRIGHTON". The Herald. No. 14, 159. Melbourne. 1 August 1921. p. 8. Retrieved 6 October 2026 – via Trove. National Library of Australia.
  34. ↑ "BRIGHTON BATHING-BOXES". The Argus. No. 25, 648. Melbourne. 24 October 1928. p. 16. Retrieved 6 October 2026 – via Trove. National Library of Australia.
  35. ↑ "BRIGHTON BATHING BOXES MAY BE ABOLISHED". The Herald. No. 17, 438. Melbourne. 4 April 1933. p. 10. Retrieved 6 October 2026 – via Trove. National Library of Australia.
  36. ↑ Evans, Trent (30 October 2017). "Call to place 93 Brighton bathing boxes at Dendy Beach on the Victorian Heritage Register". Herald-Sun. Retrieved 21 April 2023.
  37. ↑ "Proposal to move iconic Brighton bathing boxes sparks outrage". news.com.au. 12 July 2019.
  38. ↑ Towell, Noel (12 July 2019). "Libs defend beach boxes, Labor says plan shouldn't be taken literally". The Age. Retrieved 31 August 2022.
  39. ↑ "[title required]", Google Earth time series
[edit]
  • "Welcome". Brighton Bathing Box Association, Inc. n.d. Retrieved 4 October 2026.
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