The rainbow row of Brighton Bathing Boxes is one of the most iconic sights in Melbourne. There are 96 brightly-coloured, tiny beach houses lining Dendy Beach, in Melbourne’s affluent bayside suburb of Brighton. They are a Melbourne icon, alongside Flinders Street Station and the MCG, plastered across postcards, prints and artwork all over the city. Even in our first apartment in Melbourne, which we had rented furnished, had a massive print of the Brighton Bathing Boxes hanging in the office.

I’ve visited the Brighton Bathing Boxes several times. It’s one of the best things to do in Melbourne for first time visitors, as an iconic Melbourne sight – especially in summer!

Visiting the Brighton Bathing Boxes at Dendy Beach

Visiting the Brighton Bathing Boxes is free, in that Dendy Beach is a public beach with free access. You can’t visit inside a Brighton bathing box, because they are all privately owned.

In summer, Dendy Beach is often busy with tourists posing for photos with the famous boxes, but at other times throughout the year it isn’t too busy.

The bathing boxes make Dendy Beach one of the most beautiful beaches in Australia, but you probably won’t want to swim. The water in Port Philip Bay is often cold, even in summer. The bayside is a shipping passage, so a chain of cargo ships littered the horizon. Maybe it’s because I’ve grown up swimming in the ocean, not in lakes, lagoons or on the bay, but the still water doesn’t seem as appealing to me as the rolling surf.

But I wasn’t there for nice sand or warm water. The sight of 82 brightly-painted bathing boxes is the kind of thing that makes your soul happy. I can’t even use them, but just the sight of them had me tickled pink – and yellow, red, blue and green!

How much are the Brighton beach boxes worth?

Brighton’s bathing boxes are hot property. Considering their small size, they make some of Victoria’s most expensive property. At current market prices, they’re estimated to be worth approximately $400,000 each! In late 2023, a sale broke the record at $450,000 AUD. They have been available at public auctions since the late 1990s when they were around $60,000. Boxes purchased decades earlier were bought for as little as $12-$15,000!

Longtime owners of the bathing boxes are sitting on a goldmine, yet most are reluctant to sell. A sale is rare, making the bidding all the more competitive.

History of the Brighton Bathing Boxes

Bathing boxes in Melbourne’s bayside suburbs date back to the 1860s, originally located on Bay Street. The boxes were a hallmark of leisure culture in the Victorian era, and they reached their peak in numbers by 1910. Numbers fell, after the Great Depression and a number of storms that damaged the remaining boxes. They were moved to their current home on Dendy Beach in Brighton in 1934.

Australian Beach Culture

I’d like to start a photography project about Australia’s beach culture. Our national identity is so closely intertwined with beach life, even if you live nowhere near a beach or hate shaking sand out of your hair for weeks after you last beach visit.

The focus is beach culture because I don’t want to just look at beaches across the country in their natural state, but am really interested in beach culture. Beach culture is the way we interact with the beach, the way we feel about the beach, the role it plays in our lives and the clues we leave that we’ve been here.

Dendy Beach is a great example for Melbourne beaches, which differ so greatly to the natural beauties up north. The beach culture here is loud and clear, with locals leaving a huge, colourful mark on their beach territory.

Some of the bathing boxes were being used by their owners, allowing us a sneaky peek inside. I loved seeing this bright red one set up like a beach kiosk for a group of friends. Some bathing boxes were used as beach sheds for storing surfboards and swimwear and others were set up like the ultimate dream beach pad – with a small couch, hanging plants and a stereo.

I adore the Brighton Bathing Boxes. They are even more beautiful in person than they are in the postcards, paintings and even these photos. Don’t be deterred by inclement weather, hop in your car or on the Sandringham train line and see them for yourself!

Have you been to the Brighton Bathing Boxes? What is your favourite beach in the world?

Visiting Melbourne? Check out my Melbourne travel blog posts.