Thank you UK. Australia's bathing boxes are wonderful

In the 18th and C19th, morality and public behaviour were strictly pol­iced, especially going to the beach for a swim. A woman was not allowed to show flesh in public, and to protect her from the ogling eyes of wicked men, the bath­ing machine was in­vent­ed in England. A bathing machine was a roofed and walled wooden cart that rolled along the sand. Thus decency in public baths was secured; women could change into swimwear, then wade in the shallows. As we not­ed, bathing boxes soon became a common sight in UK, parts of the British Empire and France.

Now Australia. The first bathing box was installed in 1862 in Vic­t­oria, on the beaches of Port Phillip Bay and Western Port. The Moor­ab­bin Shire permitted to 3 families to erect bathing boxes in 1883, for the exc­lus­ive use of owners, their family and friends. Oth­ers followed.

There used to be many more Brighton bathing boxes; over the years some were washed away or rep­l­aced, as recorded by Brighton’s His­torical Soc­iety. But they 1] were his­t­or­­ically valuable, 2] protected the fore­shore and 3] had the best views of the City Centre only 13km away. Along the long coast of Port Phil­lip Bay, col­our­ful bathing boxes were built on sand, backed into the tee-trees, to stop sand erosion and to add shade.  

After the tramline was built from St Kilda-Bright­on in 1906, more resid­ents began seeking permits to build their own bathing boxes; ev­en­t­ually there were c150 boxes recorded. Peaking in 1910, these colour­ful huts still retained their simple arch­itectural features. Made from weath­er­­boards and corrug­ated iron roofs, the boxes couldn’t have running water or elect­ricity. To maintain the herit­age, ow­ners could not sleep there, rent out to oth­ers or have amenities. The boxes haven’t been changed from their original design when they were built, aligning them well with Australian beach culture.

Brighton is one of the loveliest beaches in Melbourne; it is also the wealth­iest, where a bathing box costs a fortune. However only a bay­side resident can make this life time purch­ase, usually passed down the family.

Moorabbin Shire showed a surge in requests to erect bath­ing boxes on the beachfront at Sandringham, Black Rock, Ham­pton, Mentone and Mordialloc in the early 1900s. All were granted permission! In one report, the Council was prepared to grant permits for new bathing boxes within the 1-2 ks from Mentone and Mord­ialloc Baths, prov­ided they were erected close to each other with doors facing the beach.

Not all applications for building permits were successful. Moorabbin Shire proclaimed that no person over 12 should use the beach to bathe within a certain distance of the Public Baths. In 1895 the Cl­erk of Works in Moorabbin Shire had to collect the annual charge of 10s. And he was also responsible to pro­vide a report to the Shire Secr­et­ary, not­ing all those people who had been gr­ant­ed the priv­ilege of a bathing box site, and which individuals had not paid the fee - they would lose their bathing box.

Scattered Brighton boxes were relocated to Dendy St Beach, to make it easier for bluestone foreshore promenade from Port Melbourne during the Great Depression. By 1934 Chelsea Council made it quite clear in its by-laws as to who could seek perm­ission to erect a bathing box or boat house, the nature and quality of such build­ings and the penalt­ies if the by-laws were ignored. Bathing box­es were ONLY for bathing, and boathouses ONLY for storing of boats and gear.

By-laws also included details re appearance of any building er­ected on the foreshore. Roofs of galvanised corrugated iron had gabled ridges, the structure was securely braced and the walls were set truly to st­r­aight lines. Although there were few windows and a locked double door, the external walls had to be primed then cov­ered with two coats of red paint, and white mouldings. Or other colours, with approval. And on the beach-side of some huts a simple porch was added, allowing parents to sit and  watch the children.   

 Some bathing boxes have a small, flat porch       

 Photo credit      

The adjacent Councils of Mordialloc & Sandringham in the 1920s took over managing a section of the Port Phillip Bay foreshore from Moorabbin. Built of concr­ete and set into the cliff face, 50 boxes in Parkdale Beach were ready for annual lease or for weekly hire with no residency restrictions.

It was in the City of Brighton’s 1961 engineering reports that bathing boxes & boat houses on Port Phillip Bay’s foreshore were condemned; the boxes had been erec­ted on public land for private purposes, and they re­stric­t­ed public acc­ess to the beach. In Nov 1961 own­ers of bathing boxes near Mentone Pier were notified that the struc­tures had to be rem­ov­ed within 30 days. Not all councillors supp­ort­ed this decision yet the Council had already decided that, as bathing boxes deteriorated, they’d be demolish­ed and no new permits issued. Then Mordialloc Council ann­ounced they’d build a new pavilion at Mentone for £20,000 and to include some bathing boxes on the ground floor to be rented cheaply. Some saw this as a peace gesture to owners whose permits had been rescinded.

By 1990 the remaining bathing boxes south of Mordialloc Creek were def­end­ed as being part of the landscape. And they continued to provide good rev­en­ue to the Council. In any case Chelsea City noted that many owners have painted and decorated the interior. They kept a few chairs or beach stuff, instead of always carrying it down to the beach. Today there are 190 bathing boxes in Chelsea and Edithvale etc, and the pol­icy is not to issue any new permits.  Thankfully the Bayside Planning Scheme added bathing boxes to a heritage overlay in 2000. 

Read Kingston's excellent local history.