$200,000 plus hopes for bright new bathing box on Brighton beach
Brighton beach's latest bathing box, 57a, has been listed for 13 December auction.
The current 88 boxes are a throwback to the 19th century, when the increasing popularity of sea bathing clashed with Victorian-era prudishness.
The first of the council's newly built weatherboard-clad structures with gabled roof offerings, reported to cost between $15,000 and $20,000 to build, fetched $215,000 at auction in December 2010.
Box 57a is one of the six brand new bathing boxes. There are another 10 coming.
More than $200,000 is tipped despite the looming influx.
It has been listed through John Clarkson at Hockingstuart Brighton. His last sale was $172,500 in February this year for box 38.
John Clarkson was the first to auction one in 1999, selling 58 for $58,000.
Only Bayside ratepayers can have one, with owners paying the council an annual fee of around $600 for the right to have a building on a beach.
Proceeds from the sale will be used to fund improvements to Dendy Street beach including landscaping, a new pavilion, public toilets, access paths and a new car park.
It has been a little quiet on the bathing box sales front but recent known sales have included:
- December 2013 $220,000
- December 2011 $204,000
- June 2011 $260,000 record
- December 2010 $215,000
Bayside Council have now built six 'infill' boxes.
The first four sold for more than $900,000 in total.
Councillor Alex del Porto said creating more of the highly-valued commodities made economic and tourist sense.
"This is the iconic beach for Melbourne, maybe for all of Victoria," del Porto said last year.
"We don't have the Sydney Harbour Bridge, but we do have these bathing boxes."
Last year Brighton Bathing Box Association secretary Bill Meares said community surveys showed people were heavily in favour of additions, despite their actual lack of heritage.
In the 1930s there were up to 120 bathing boxes on the beach, some subsequently washed away on the south end.
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