Even more adventures in Victoria...

On Wednesday last week DH surprised me by saying that instead of going to see displays in the Museum of Victoria or exhibitions in the numerous art galleries in Melbourne, why didn't we take a drive out to the beach areas on the Mornington Peninsula ? I thought that was a great idea especially when he said that we were going to find some 'bathing boxes'. These quaint old structures from a former time are fascinating. They are small and built right on the beach. Recent sales recorded prices of over $200 000! The following is an excerpt from Wikipedia.

'The noted bathing boxes at Brighton in Australia are known to have existed as far back as 1862.^[5] The bathing boxes are thought to have been constructed and used largely as a response to the Victorian morality of the age, and are known to have existed not only in Australia but also on the beaches of England, France and Italy at around the same time.^[6]
They had evolved from the wheeled bathing machines used by Victorians to preserve their modesty. George III used a bathing machine at Mudeford in 1801, while Queen Victoria installed one at Osbourne House on the Isle of Wight in the 1840s.'


DH thought that the beach suburb of Frankston had bathing boxes, so that's where we headed. It was a very cold day but we wandered along the sand looking for the little 'boxes'.

It was very cold and windy...

The beautiful foreshore area was deserted...

A dredge worked at clearing the entrance to the channel

We walked up the beach to the jetty

When we got to the jetty we realised that there didn't appear to be any bathing boxes. I suggested we go into the Information Centre which was just near the jetty.

The Information Centre in the background

The lady on the counter informed us that Frankston did not have any old bathing boxes but a nearby locality, Mornington, did. So we headed off there. We drove into the parking area on the waterfront of Mornington, and looking back across the bay we spied, way in the distance...bathing boxes, all nestling close to the grassy area above the sand.

You may have to double click to enlarge the photo; the little huts  are on the beach  towards the right hand side

Hmmm...there must be a way of getting closer to them. So off we went looking for a road down. We found the turn off, parked the car and then walked down to the beach. I felt my shoes filling with sand (the sand was very dry here unlike the wet, compacted sand at Frankston)but it didn't matter as we'd found our quaint little bathing boxes/huts!

Next time we're in Victoria, we might go to Brighton to see the boxes there; after all, they did rate a mention in Wikipedia! lol