A Contemporary History of Box Hill

‘A Contemporary History of Box Hill’ is an extensive essay covering the history of the suburb located 14 kilometres east of Melbourne’s Central Business District. Rigorously researched and constructed, the essay presents a sweeping perspective of Box Hill’s evolution from a neglected outpost of the Wurundjeri-Balluk, to a locus of artistic flourishing for the Heidelberg School of painters, to a quiet home for post-war immigrants, to a suburb hosting a large portion of the city’s flourishing Chinese population, to what is now, as of 2024, the site of previously-unforeseeable highrise development. You can read the essay here.

The essay provides the foreword for Wilhelm Philipp’s photobook ‘I Wish We Knew These Were The Good Times When We Were In Them’, which documents the changing face of Box Hill and the everyday lives of its residents. You can purchase a copy of the book here.