Melbourne 2007
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One of the tourist icons of Melbourne, the bathing boxes on Brighton’s beaches are known to have existed as long ago as 1862. Completion of the tram line from St Kilda to Brighton led to an increase in their numbers in the early 1900s; final numbers are uncertain, but it has been estimated that there were as many as 200 prior to the Great Depression. Today, just 82 remain.
Largely uniform in size and build, the boxes at Brighton are the only surviving such structures close to the Melbourne CBD. A heritage order on the boxes by the local City Council restricts alterations, and all retain their Victorian era architecture: timber frames, weatherboard sidings, and corrugated iron roofs, without electricity or running water. They remain as they did over one hundred years ago, as licensed bathing boxes. Licensees individualise their boxes with colourful, and sometimes creative, painted finishes. When viewed together they turn the beachscape into a collective work of art that changes by the hour, according to season, light and weather.
As of 2008 bathing box licences were selling for prices in the AU$200,000 range, with annual Council rates of around AU$500, despite their lack of amenities. In 2009 plans were announced to build at least six new boxes, the first for more than seventy years, in an effort by the Council to raise funds to counter the global financial crisis.
When I visited Brighton in July of 2007, my intention was to make panoramic images – something that’s been done many times before, and no doubt will again. But once I came face to face with the boxes, and realised the wealth of interesting detail that only a more close-up approach would reveal, I decided that photographing each box individually would help to isolate it from its urban environment and create a greater impression of a ‘gallery’. The choice of winter for my visit meant that the afternoon sun was at the perfect low angle to accentuate both the rich palette of colours and the textures of the ageing weatherboards. – NG