Mt Martha is a village on the Mornington Peninsula in Victoria. It is not far from Rye where we are staying and it so happens I have a friend, Bill, living at Mt Martha. I went to teachers' college with him back in 1962/63 we lost touch when we were teaching in P/NG but we renewed our friendship at reunions that we have had since 2002. Today our daughter was busy catching up with lots of her friends so we took the opportunity to visit Bill, who invited us to lunch.
With our trusty GPS, Kate, we found our way to Bill's house. We met his lovely partner, Avril, and spent hours catching up with their travelling exploits. He took us for a drive to the nearby Mt Martha beach, famous for its colourful beach boxes. It was a drizzly, blustery cool day so there was no one on the beach.
They are leased and are not allowed to be lived in and there is no electricity, water or sewerage connections allowed. No more are allowed to be built. Thus they have become extremely expensive to lease if any become available. They can be be up to $100,000.
But this was a week day and it was cold. Us Queenslanders had to rug up. Crazy Victorian weather, hot one day and freezing the next not like Queensland, "sunny one day and perfect the next"
With our trusty GPS, Kate, we found our way to Bill's house. We met his lovely partner, Avril, and spent hours catching up with their travelling exploits. He took us for a drive to the nearby Mt Martha beach, famous for its colourful beach boxes. It was a drizzly, blustery cool day so there was no one on the beach.
Bill shows us the beach and the colourful beach boxes also known as bathing boxes, beach huts or boat sheds.
For over 100 years people have been coming to the Mornington Peninsula for holidays. In the early days people built the bathing boxes for modesty reasons.
Today they are used for storage of boats or possessions related to having fun on the beach.
On warm weekends the huts are opened and many people are playing and laughing together with good community spirit.
