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Box Hill, Victoria, Australia

Box Hill is a pretty good middle-class eastern area of greater Melbourne in Victoria, Australia. Via the freeway it is 14 kilometres from the cbd of Melbourne. The present municipality of Box Hill has an established population of slightly below 12 000 individuals. For administrative reasons, Box Hill is currently part of the City of Whitehorse.

Prior to the arrival of Europeans the region was where you can the Wurundjeri Aboriginal people. The earliest European landholder was Arundel Wrighte who took up a pastoral lease on the property in 1938. Box Hill was initially officially announced a city in 1927 with it rising over the next 100 years into their own city. In 1871, the population of the township was 154 and was primarily orchards, wineries and other mixed varieties of agriculture. During this time the township had been a essential market center for the vegetables and fruits that were grown in the region at that time. Box Hill was taken in within greater Melbourne in the 50’s included in the eastern continuing development of Melbourne. The specific name of Box Hill had been decided on at a meeting in 1860 of local people introduced several preferred location names. A contest was held and won by a storekeeper, Silas Padgham, who had been also the very first postmaster of the community. Silas was born in Box Hill in Surrey, England, so this end up being the term for the new town.

Today, Box Hill is renowned for its considerable Chinese population with over 65% of the population not being born in Australia. Box Hill has also Melbourne’s highest high-rise properties outside the CBD and due to this is often referred to as Melbourne’s second metropolis. It has today turned into a significant transportation centre for the eastern and surrounding suburbs with certainly one of the most busy suburban train and bus facilities. It includes a key hospital that first launched in 1956 along with a sizeable shopping precinct. Box Hill is supported by three high schools and one technical college along with quite a few primary schools and kindergartens.

An interesting landmark within Box Hill will be the old Surrey Dive which has been a well-known swimming lake. It was never ever a real lake, but a pit that was excavated to supply clay for the brick manufacturer nearby, beginning in 1880 that filled with water. There are actually a number of unsubstantiated rumours and tales around drownings at the lake. Surrey Dive was developed at that time into amongst Australia’s top swimming competition locations. It was put to use in competition up to the 30s, when a pool ended up being developed near the Dive. The building of the brickworks still exist but has not operated for a long time and it has ended up being the target of graffiti spammers and vandalism lately. That is why it’s now fenced off and run down. The large smokestack still throw a shadow on the dive. The Dive in Box Hill is currently an ornamental lake and the home for a model boat club. The lake has stopped being useful for swimming. The old brickworks is a protected heritage site.