Box Hill real estate

For many thousands of years the Wurundjeri Woiwurrung people made their home in the area now known as Box Hill. Creeks gave them food and water, and Bushy Creek in the north was one of the creeks they used. The land they lived on is the land the suburb occupies today.

A squatter from Van Diemen's Land, Arundel Wrighte, had explored the Bushy Creek area and in 1838 took up a pastoral lease on that land. Thomas Toogood and his wife Edith became the first permanent settlers, buying 5,000 acres in 1841. In 1844 Wrighte built a house on his property and named it Marionvale. The Pioneers' Memorial that stands in front of the town hall was made using a chimney stone from Wrighte's original house.

Crown lands were subdivided and sold after 1850. A hotel went up at Box Hill in 1853, prompted by the traffic on a main road that ran through the district. The owner called it the White Horse hotel, and that name passed to the road.

The post office at Box Hill opened on 1 February 1861, the first time the name was used officially. Silas Padgham, the postmaster, suggested the name, drawing it from Box Hill in Surrey, England, near his birthplace.

In 1871 the population of the township was 154, and the district lived on orchards, vineyards and mixed farming. Box Hill became the Nunawading Shire Council's seat, and its meetings took place at the Box Hill Courthouse.

The railway line from Camberwell to Lilydale was extended in 1882 and included a station at Box Hill. Canterbury and Surrey Hills, further west, also gained stations, and those two places drew subdivisions and development sooner than Box Hill. Growth arrived with a school that opened at Box Hill in 1887, then called State School 2838.

In the mid-1880s artists who painted the Australian bush outdoors were drawn to Box Hill. Arthur Streeton, Tom Roberts and Frederick McCubbin were among them. They set up the Box Hill artists' camp, which grew into what is called the Heidelberg School, the first movement in Western art to be distinctly Australian.

Box Hill lacked the network of tramlines that suburbs nearer Melbourne had, and those lines encouraged residential development in places beyond the reach of the railway. In 1916-17, tramlines arrived at the western edge of what would soon become the Box Hill Municipality. The places reached were Burwood, Mont Albert and Wattle Park. After the First World War, Box Hill had its turn for residential growth.

A technical school for girls went up in 1924, and a high school for boys in 1930. A boys' technical school opened during the Second World War. In April 1935 the town hall on Whitehorse Road was opened. One argument made for its construction was that it would help the brickworks in the area, which had recently restarted after a pause in production.

The Presbyterian church in Box Hill, now a Uniting church building, began as the West Melbourne Presbyterian Church. That building went up in 1867 at the corner of Lonsdale and William Streets. A last service took place there on 3 February 1935. The building was then taken apart and rebuilt on its present site, opening late in 1935.

After the Second World War Box Hill became suburban, while Box Hill South and Box Hill North stayed comparatively undeveloped. A Housing Commission estate went up in Box Hill South as part of post-war housing growth, and a district hospital opened in 1956. By the end of the 1950s the shopping area had grown so much that parking was under significant strain.

The Melbourne & Metropolitan Board of Works named Box Hill one of five district centres in metropolitan Melbourne in 1954. During the 1950s Melbourne's eastward expansion absorbed Box Hill. A sister city link with Matsudo, in Chiba Prefecture, Japan, was forged in 1971.

On 15 December 1994 Box Hill City and Nunawading City were amalgamated, forming Whitehorse City. A construction boom followed in the 21st century. Among the high-rise buildings are Sky One, a 36-storey building 122 metres tall and the tallest outside central Melbourne, along with the Box Hill Tower of the Australian Taxation Office and the Whitehorse Towers.

In 2021, 46.6% of the suburb's residents were recorded as having Chinese ancestry, the largest percentage in Melbourne. More high-rises are under construction, among them New Chinatown, a twin tower project that will include storefronts, a food hall with street-style stalls, a childcare centre, a Chinese language school and bookshop, and Chinese herbalists.

Box Hill lies 14 kilometres east of Melbourne's central business district, in the City of Whitehorse, and its centre is one of the largest metropolitan centres outside the CBD. The railway station sits at the core of that area, with taller residential and commercial buildings clustered around it and major roads on three sides. Box Hill Central holds the station and a bus interchange, the route 109 tram serves the suburb, and the two shopping centres, North and South, were merged in a redevelopment in late 2007.

Box Hill Hospital serves surrounding suburbs. Epworth Eastern, a private hospital, opened in 2005 in that precinct, and the Box Hill Library, which the Whitehorse Manningham Regional Library Corporation runs, is near the town hall. The three main open spaces are Surrey Park, R.H.L. Sparks Reserve and Box Hill Gardens, and most parks have sporting facilities and fields. Heritage listings include the Standard Brickworks, the former Woodhouse Grove Wesleyan Chapel, and the Myer Memorial and Box Hill Cemetery Columbarium.