Keen-eyed Box Hill locals may have noticed a familiar sight missing from the Whitehorse Road median strip – with the iconic white horse statue recently wrapped in bubble wrap and transported to temporary storage, as works continue on Suburban Rail Loop (SRL) East from Cheltenham to Box Hill.
Crews encased the entire horse in bubble wrap, used a scissor lift to lower it to the ground, and placed the statue in a custom-made box to be taken into temporary storage – where it will be kept safe while a new home is found for the much-loved artwork.
The statue is a fibreglass replica of the original, built for the Whitehorse Hotel in 1895. When the hotel was demolished in 1934, the statue was moved to Whitehorse Road.
The original has since been moved to Town Hall, while the replica has greeted thousands of people every day passing through Box Hill.
Works are underway in Box Hill to move and upgrade the tram stop on Whitehorse Road – making it safer and more accessible and ensuring services can continue during construction. Works start soon on a temporary bridging structure to enable Whitehorse Road to remain open to traffic while we excavate the underground station.
We’ll also be moving water, sewer, power and gas utilities to pave the way for the new station and twin tunnels. This first phase of work on SRL East is creating up to 800 direct jobs.
With trains running by 2035, SRL will make it easier to get around the heart of Box Hill – connecting more people to jobs and services in one of Melbourne’s fastest growing education and medical hubs.
The new station will feature pedestrian plazas, easy connections to public transport and shops, and significantly more public open space-including a linear park on the south side of Whitehorse Road.
