Whitehorse has many attractions for its residents and visitors to discover and experience including:
- Box Hill Town Hall which
is a vibrant hub for
community groups. It
incorporates an accredited
art space to display Council’s
comprehensive art collection
and a convenient meeting
place for local businesses. - The Whitehorse Centre, the
city’s premier arts and
cultural centre, attracts
thousands of theatre lovers
each year. - The Whitehorse Professional
Theatre and Music Season
showcases some of the best
professional theatre from
around the country. - Schwerkolt Cottage and
Museum Complex in
Mitcham is a heritage listed
pioneer’s stone cottage in
a garden setting surrounded
by over two hectares of
bushland. - The Box Hill Community
Arts Centre is an artistic
and cultural hub and home
to a wide variety of local
arts and community groups.
The centre offers art and craft
classes, an exhibition space,
art shop and community
meeting space. - Blackburn Lake Sanctuary
is one of the area’s most
important environmental
assets and is regarded as one of
the most important
bird refuges in metropolitan
Melbourne. - Sportlink Vermont South,
Aqualink Nunawading and
Aqualink Box Hill are
facilities that attract thousands
of people each week.
A strong arts history
The City of Whitehorse is closely linked with the beginnings of Australia’s impressionist arts movement.
Tom Roberts, one of Australia’s greatest landscape painters, came to Box Hill shortly after returning from a trip to France and Spain, where he had fallen under the spell of the impressionist movement.
He was determined to capture the play of light and shade in the Australian countryside and was attracted by the open country that then surrounded Box Hill.
He was joined by several of Australia’s most famous artists from 1885 to 1888.
Roberts and his friend and fellow painter, Frederick McCubbin, dissatisfied with the conservative approach to landscape painting which existed in most of Australia’s art schools, chose Houston’s Farm at Box Hill as their base.
It was an ideal location because it allowed them to pursue their experiments on weekends while retaining their jobs in Melbourne.
They were soon joined by a number of other artists including Arthur Streeton, Louis Abrahams, Charles Colder, Jane Sutherland, Tom Humphrey and John Mather.
Council has an impressive art collection containing nine works by members of the Box Hill Artists’ Camp, including McCubbin, Roberts and Streeton.
