Brighton

Brighton is a residential bayside suburb 11 km. south-east of Melbourne.

In 1840 the British Government’s Land and Emigration Commission approved procedures for the sale of “Special Survey” land allotments of eight square miles (5,120 acres at one poundeach – 2,072 ha.), chiefly as a revenue-raising arrangement. There werethree such sales in the area of future metropolitan Melbourne before special surveys were stopped, they being Dendy’s at Brighton (March, 1841), Unwin’sat Bulleen and Templestowe and Elgar’s at Box Hill. All were five milesfrom the centre of Melbourne, as required by regulations made by the New South Wales Executive Council.

Henry Dendy (1809-81) employed Jonathan Binns Were(1809-85), later a prominent stockbroker, as his agent. His special-surveyland was bounded by the coastline, North Road, East Boundary Road and SouthRoad. A town was surveyed in the Spring of 1841, defined by the crescent-shapedstreet layout which remains today, and subdivided allotments offered forsale. Purchasers were few, a financial depression came and Dendy’s schemefor emigration and land sales failed. He died a pauper and the Were familyacquired the land for highly profitable resale after the depression.

Dendy’s town site was initially marketed as Waterville,perhaps because an early settler at Port Melbourne called his area Brighton,probably after the coastal watering place in Sussex, England. However, Dendysoon renamed his land the Brighton Estate, and Dendy’s site for his ownhome was named “Brighton park”. Dendy’s choice of land was donecarefully, avoiding the swamp at Elsternwick and consisting mainly of goodundulating land. After the depression sales of land resulted in Brightonbecoming the third most populated town in Port Phillip (after Melbourneand Portland), by 1846. The farming land was sought to supply agriculturalproduce for Melbourne, so as to lessen imports from Tasmania. Brighton attractedwealthy residents who wanted generous building sites and the prospect ofsea bathing.

By 1850 there were an Anglican church (1843), Wesleyan and Catholic churches (1848) and a Methodist church (1851). Schools were opened in the Anglican church (1849) and by the Catholic church in CentreRoad (1850). Another was opened in the Wesleyan church in 1855. In 1854Brighton had a census population of 2,731 persons. Brighton had three localities- Big Brighton on the Dendy township, Little Brighton (today’s East Brightonaround the intersection of Union Street and Hawthorn Road) and BrightonEast in the direction of Moorabbin. During the mid 1850s there were rumoursof a railway connection to Melbourne. It came in stages: Windsor to NorthBrighton (1859), the connection to Melbourne in 1860 and North Bright onto Brighton Beach (1861). On 18 January, 1859, the Brighton municipality was proclaimed extending eastwards between Dendy’s survey boundaries toThomas Street and Nepean Highway. Bailliere’s Victorian Gazetteer describedBrighton in 1865 as -

BRIGHTON, (Co. Bourke) is a boroughand postal township in the parish of Moorabbin, and electoral district ofS.Bourke, situated on the E.coast of Port Phillip. There is one steam flourmill at Little Brighton, in the district, which is an agricultural one.The nearest places are Elsternwick, 2 miles N. ; Oakleigh, 7 miles W. ;and Cheltenham, 7 miles S. With all these places there is communicationby car and Omnibus. There is one insurance office in Brighton, a branch of the Australasian. The communication with Melbourne is by rail, distant 8 miles. The is a mechanics institute in the township, and 5 hotels – the Devonshire, Railway (Irish’s), Marine, Royal (Grimbly’s), and Little Brighton(Keys’s). There are 2 licensed carriers, who convey goods to and from Melbourne, Baker and Cutts. The surrounding country is undulating, and tolerably well cultivated. Brighton is a seaside bathing village, and a favourite placeof resort for pleasure and pic-nic parties; there is a fine pier, and a spacious and well-fitted bath enclosure (Kenny’s). There is a long sandybeach ; and the breeze which blows across the bay is invigorating, pureand salubrious. The buildings consist chiefly of boarding houses, whichare usually full during the summer months, and the suburban residences of Melbourne merchants and others. The geological formation of the districtis pliocene tertiary ; and the regular population numbers about 3000 persons.

Brighton had been made a borough in October, 1863,and in 1870 parts of Elwood and Elsternwick were added. The creation of the Brighton municipality brought Thomas Bent into Brighton’s orbit as its rate collector in 1861. He subsequently was elected to the Moorabbin Roads Board (1863), became the Parliamentary member for Brighton (1871) memberof Brighton Council (1874), mayor on several occasions and a tireless developerfor Brighton. He was the Treasurer and Premier of Victoria, 1904-9.

Brighton developed three shopping centre – Bay Street, with 65 shops by 1887, Church Street with 17 and Nepean Highway with 16. Away from the town or village Brighton was market gardens, famed for cabbages.

A volunteer corps was formed in 1860, and the BoerWar and the Mafeking relief evoked keen interest. Patriotism was prominentduring the first world war, and the erection of a war memorial at GreenPoint, Brighton Beach, in 1927 marked the last land which soldiers saw asthe ships took them down the bay to distant fields.

Between 1872 and 1893 most churches built of replacedtheir buildings – Anglican (2), Presbyterian (2), Methodist (2), and Catholic and Congregational. The Anglican St. Andrews church is on the register ofthe National Estate and the Congregational church is on the Victorian Heritage Register. In the same period there were numerous private schools, of whichBrighton Grammar (1882), survives. Firbank Anglican girls’ school was opened in 1909, and St. Leonards (Uniting Church) in 1914. A primary school at Brighton Beach was opened for an orphanage in 1878 and was changed to anordinary school in 1915.

Brighton was described in The Australian Handbook,1903, as -