Brighton: Beach boxes, Bec Judd, Yacqub Khayre terror attack
Brighton is the domain of Melbourne’s rich and fabulous. But it’s not all long lunches and lattes at ‘Toorak by the sea’. The exclusive suburb has also endured tornadoes and a terror attack. Here’s a look at postcode 3186.
Inner South
Don't miss out on the headlines from Inner South . Followed categories will be added to My News.
Brighton has long been a magnet for Melbourne’s well-heeled.
The seaside suburb has drawn a diverse crowd of talented and famous locals from artist Sidney Nolan to spin king Shane Warne.
It became a town in 1887 and was declared the City of Brighton in 1919 after annexing 14ha from the City of Moorabbin.
Located 11km south east of central Melbourne, Brighton has close to 23,000 residents.
Postcode 3186 has many heritage listed houses as well as railway gates at New St, Middle Brighton and Brighton Beach railway stations (1882, 1889) and the Brighton municipal offices (1959).
The New St gate crossing was a source of contention for many years after being closed in 2007 following two accidents and shut permanently in 2010.
A community campaign led to a $4.4 million project to replace the manually operated gates with electronic boom gates in 2013.
Significant developments over the years include the Middle Brighton Baths, which were first built in 1882 and rebuilt in 1936 after storm damage.
A reconstructed sea enclosure was opened in 1986 as one of Australia’s few surviving beach baths.
The suburb’s iconic beach boxes started popping up in the 1850s to allow for modest bathing are now one of Melbourne’s top tourist attractions.
They are exclusively owned by Bayside residents and despite having no power or running water can sell for up to $340,000.
Often called ‘Toorak by the sea’, Brighton’s Church St is one of the main shopping centres in the suburb along with Bay St.
The precinct is popular with ladies who lunch, including one of Brighton’s best known locals, Bec Judd
The power WAG and her AFL husband Chris Judd recently unveiled the extravagant makeover of their Spanish Colonial-style mansion.
The Judds bought the property for a whopping $7.3 million with a plan to make it a “forever home” for themselves and their four children.
But it’s not all long lunches and lattes in Brighton.
The suburb was the scene of not one but three tornadoes on February 2, 1918 that killed two, injured another six and destroyed Hawthorn Rd Methodist Church and several homes.
It badly damaged the Brighton Baths, tore the roof off Royal Terminus Hotel and destroyed the verandah of Grimley’s Hotel and wreaked havoc with infrastructure on the Sandringham railway line.
More recently terror came to Brighton in the shape of convicted home-invader Yacqub Khayre.
On June 5, 2017 Khayre shot dead Kai Hao, who worked at an apartment complex, and held a woman hostage before he was gunned down in a shootout with police.
Three police officers were wounded in the incident.
At the time of the attack Khayre was on parole for a drug-affected violent home invasion in 2012.
In 2009 he was arrested as part of a terrorist plot to kill soldiers at Holsworthy barracks. Khayre and another co-accused, Abdirahman Ahmed, were both acquitted of the plot charges, but three others – Wissam Mahmoud Fattal, Saney Edow Aweys and Nayef El Sayed – were convicted and sentenced to 18 years in prison.
Islamic State later claimed responsibility for the Brighton attack.
MORE:
ST KILDA: HISTORY OF POSTCODE 3182
ESSENDON: HISTORY OF POSTCODE 3040
MERNDA: HISTORY OF POSTCODE 3754
FERNTREE GULLY: HISTORY OF POSTCODE 3156