Box Hill Station. A Look Back.
Box Hill Station is a prime example of mixed uses, transport oriented development that allows the growth of the suburb into what it is today. The shift from a normal train station and strangely, one of the rare occasions that Transit-Oriented Development has happened in Melbourne.
Today, it's considered a mega transport hub serving all three modes of public transportation (trains, trams and buses) and could be considered the gateway to the eastern suburbs. It also plays host to Vicinity Box Hill being a major shopping centre but compared to other stations along the lines of the Ringwood group, it's showing its age… a time-capsule stuck in the 1980’s Brutalist architecture.
The station.
Box Hill was once a station that was a terminus for the short-running Ringwood group trains and also was a freight destination as trains used to haul goods towards the City, occasionally being used for the goods trains that continued from the Yarra Valley (Healesville) lines. Freight services ceased in 1976.
The station before the rebuild was to a similar style to Caulfield or Essendon, which was considered as “Federation Free Style”, a common theme for James W Hardy, the Department of Transport architect in the 1910s. The station had brick buildings that were complimented with cantilever canopies enclosed with corrugated iron cladding, that shaded the platform. Although this hasn’t been documented online, it could be suggested that many of the fittings that were part of the now late station could date back to the 1910s.
In 1975, Victorian Railways and the Victorian State Government sought to upgrade Box Hill Stations' overall facilities, $13 million (now $67,368,513 in 2022) was allocated to create a new transport hub that we take for granted today. The building would complement the existing Whitehorse Plaza (now Vicinity Box Hill - North) by establishing a mall-like experience, that felt seamless and connected. As part of this project, it would also remove the manual gate crossing at Station Street.
The advancement to ‘The MET’ which was unifying the three modes of transport being the ‘Victorian Railways’, ‘Melbourne Tram Transportation Board’ and the Bus Network saw a massive shakeup in the 80s. The focus was to make transportation easier and simpler for the generalized traveller and this resulted in Whitehorse seeing a massive shakeup in local transportation. Box Hill would ultimately become a major bus hub in later years.
Before the rebuild, the station ceased to exist with a replacement portable station building erected in its place.
This resulted in the complete rebuild of Box Hill Station during the 1980s which we know what it is today. Encased in what seems to be a combination of concrete, steel, bricks, painted muted pastel colours… it’s a somewhat lacklustre 80’s brutalist architecture design but it proved to be functional as a social hub.
The station was seen as an aesthetically pleasing architectural marvel during the 80s. The modern design was replicated throughout the exterior, whilst the station under the shopping centre still replicate these qualities, exposed concrete supports and bricks
Once the development was done in 1985, it's strange to see the tracks skewed to have Platform 2/3/4 as the platforms in use whilst Platform 1, sits unused since… whilst a McDonalds above covers the access ramps onto the platform.
In 2003, Route 42 was extended from Mont Albert to Box Hill. This was later renumbered to Route 109, which saw the first low floor trams in the network.
The station was the last to have the old CRT Monitors which lasted until 2019. Many were ironically reused from the City Loop stations before their upgrade in the 2010s.
Fast forward to 2022.. 39 years later, the station is still seeing heavy patronage despite the COVID pandemic and being a local in the Whitehorse area, this station has been proven useful for travelling anywhere.
In FY2019–20, Public Transport Victoria reported 2,775,200 passengers using Box Hill. FY2020–2021 was 1,192,700, factoring in the start of the COVID pandemic as a variable.
It’s quite simply evolved from being a normal station into a cultural hub for Asians. Its role as a transportation hub is critical for the eastern suburbs, as public transport plays a huge role in connecting Melbourne. Box Hill is currently one of the many handfuls of suburbs that have skyrises being built up.
In recent years, Vicinity and alongside the Victorian State Government are slowly embarking on the future of the 80’s looking station and shipping centre, with Vicinity starting a ten-year refurbishment project on the existing shopping centre which would ideally bring it in line with Vicinity modern standards. The Victorian State Government has slowly been injecting funds to minimally improve station amenities like signage but intends to have a longer-term goal of improving the overall experience.
Suburban Rail Loop (despite being a dreamish Frankenstein project) hopes to use this huge opportunity to create Box Hill into Melbourne’s next self-sustaining satellite city. The SRL expects TOD and increased developments once SRL is complete. TOD would take another five to ten years after the SRL to see benefits to the surrounding community.
Platform 1 was expected to be reactivated to work alongside 2/3/4 in the future under the Network Development Plan 2012, but is unconfirmed if it's required now. One could hope this platform comes back to light soon.
Side note, it's interesting to note that Vicinity, is planning to knock down the existing north shopping (formerly Whitehorse Plaza) centre to make way for a newly revitalized area for development.
