“Obviously if sea and storm damage consumes my box they will be consuming coasts around the world,so it has to be in perspective. I don’t think we are pushing against the tide,so to speak.”
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The worsening situation has forced Bayside council to consider building a protective groyne or a breakwater,which the mayor said would cost $3 million.
Long ago,the boxes were moved beyond the high-tide line,and in 2013 the Dendy Street Beach Masterplan recommended the installation of new bathing boxes at the southern end of the beach.
But the Brighton Bathing Box Association and Brighton Foreshore Association warned the southern part of the beach was vulnerable.
“There used to be 120 bathing boxes at the beach,the numbers had dropped down to 82,and the council have built 14 new boxes,including six at the southern end of the beach,which is where boxes were washed away historically,” said box owner John Rundell,secretary of Brighton Bathing Box Association. “The southern end of the beach has been subject to storm damage,” he said.
The association told the council there would be a higher risk building boxes at the southern end of the beach,he said.
The row of Dendy Streeet beach boxes is a well-known Melbourne scene,and popular with photographers,both professional and amateur. But the council says the boxes are under threat from erosion.Credit:Domain
Foreshore association secretary Liz McQuire said the council had treated Dendy Beach as “a money-making opportunity”.
“Professor Weston Bate years ago warned Alex del Porto,a still-sitting councillor,never to build boxes at the south end of the beach where they have been traditionally washed away,and Alex responded ‘caveat emptor’[let the buyer beware],” said McQuire,who attended a meeting between the local historian and the councillor in October 2013.
Sandbags around bathing boxes at Dendy Street beach.
Del Porto said he did not recall that conversation. “I love the heritage precinct idea. There used to be a lot of gaps there,” he said. “Our view was to refurbish it and beautify it. I am glad we strengthened the heritage precinct.”
The expensive boxes – one sold for $337,000 in 2018 – have no electricity,no running water and need to meet strict decoration guidelines. They can only be bought by locals,who don’t even gain a title over them – merely a lease of perpetuity – but do have to pay rates of about $1000 a year.
Last July,due to “unusual sand movement”,the council moved to protect five boxes by installing sandbags,which locals said were poorly laid. A severe storm before Christmas created significant extra sand loss.
Local real estate agent Nick Johnstone has sold some of the boxes. “They are still incredibly highly sought after and very tightly held. The last sale was around $370,000,” Johnstone said. “They are a great fun thing to have,and they just switch from generation to generation. I wouldn’t be surprised if the prices go up.”
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Coastal erosion is a wider headache for Bayside Council. Brighton wasthird in a list of Melbourne suburbs most at risk from coastal erosion,a report from CoreLogic warned in March,with houses and apartments worth $415.4 million vulnerable.
“We are confident with the renourishment we are starting and the longer-term engineering will address the issue of erosion for the next 50 to 100 years,” the mayor said.
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