Barkly Brick Co.

The Barkly Brick Company was established by at least 1909, and erected presses and kilns in started a  clay pit on Weston Street Brunswick, extending to Barkly St. This may have taken over the site of William Grey's Barkly Brickyard of about 1859. John Grant was manager and Graeme R Ferry (of Ferry's Pottery) and  Frederick Thomas Hickford, were among the directors.

The works was also known later as the New Brunswick Brick and Pottery Co Pty Ltd in about 1957-9. Operations continued until about 1962, when the quarry hole was filled (with rubbish as usual). Subsequently the Barkly Square shopping centre was built on the brickworks site, and the land over the clay pit became car parking.

Two bricks from a c 1920s house in Brunswick

Gamble Brick Co

Joseph A Gamble originally started his brickmaking career with his Gamble Brick and Tar Paving Works in Glenlyon Road South Preston, which was operating by at least 1886. This works was still in operation in 1889, but was almost completely destroyed by a fire on 14 July 1892. Gamble does not appear to have recovered from this and in 1893 he was made insolvent. An auction was held on the premises on 22 February 1896.

Gamble eventually recovered from the loss of the Preston works to form a new company in 1912, "The New Gamble Brick and Quarrying Co Pty Ltd" and despite the commencement of World War Two, he purchased a property in Ferntree Gully Oakleigh win 1914 with the intention of commencing brickmaking. The works was operating by January 1916.

The New Gamble Company went into liquidation in March 1955, and in 1960 it was bought-out by Brick Industries Ltd. Under the new management the company was prosperous for a while, selling over 10,000,000 in 1975. Production ceased in 1982 and the works were demolished, with the site was converted to warehousing and the brick pit, which had been used as a council waste tip, was redeveloped into a public park, Reg Harris Reserve.

In the 1980s, brickmaking machinery from Gamble's Ferntree Gully Road works was installed as a sculptural feature in Brickmakers Park on the site of the Oakleigh Brick Company quarry hole in Stamford Road.

Gamble's brick presses and edge runner mill in Brickmakers Park Oakleigh

 

 

John Glew

John Glew learned the brickmaking trade from Thomas Manallack at his brickworks in Phillipstown  from 1849. He soon set up his own brickmaking business in Hodgson Street Phillipstown and then moved to Barkly Street East when the clay pit was worked out in 1860. He purchased Poheman's Paddock Brickmaking Company in 1866, and in 1871 opened another brickworks in Essendon. Each of these appears to have produced bricks of quite different character and colour. Glew retired in 1884, but his Weston Street brickworks continued to operate to at least 1906.
 Glew played an important role in enabling the development of the polychrome brick architectural style in Melbourne having been the first  to produce 'fancy white bricks' in the colony. Glew also produced white clay square pavers with 'J G' stamped on the bottom similar to some bricks.

 

Unprovenanced

Arndt's South Preston Brickworks

Gottleib Arndt was one of the earliest brickmakers in the northern suburbs of Melbourne in the 1850s. He operated claypits near Hotham and Raglan Streets with Henry Walkerden as Manager. Walkerden and his brother were also associated with a brickworks in Oakover Road Preston in the 1880s.

In 1888 Arndt's works was taken over by the Melbourne and Suburban Property and Agency Company Ltd., and in July 1889 by the South Preston Patent Brick and Tile Company, which did not survive long after the collapse of the land and  building boom. 

The Raglan St. site appears to have been acquired by the Glen Iris Brick Company as councillor and mayor James Adams, the General Manager of the Company, donated the site to Preston Council. The clay pit was filled as a tip and became the Florence Adams Playground.

Shepparton Brickworks

There may have been brickyards in Shepparton as early as 1858, but by the 1880s, there are regular newspaper references (including to a boy drowning in the flooded claypit) to the 'Shepparton Brickyard' in Knight St., which was operated by Drysdale from about 1880, Pomberton around 1900 H Thompson in 1914-16, and Tuttle from 1916-17. 

In about 1920 the Erskine Brothers (M. J. & A. G.) started the Shepparton Brick and Tile Co Pty Ltd., taking over the old brickyard and manufacturing dry pressed machine bricks with both "SHEPPARTON"; "ERSKINE" on the frogs. It appears that they were produced to a very similar pattern throughout this period, and bricks were sold in a number of regional towns as well as constructing a large part of post-War Shepparton. The works closed down in 1973, and the quarry hole was used as a council tip before being restored as 'Brickworks Park' off the boulevard, in 2006.

Shepparton bricks are stamped both "SHEPARTON" and "ERSKINE", with most being a soft orange-brown colour. the Shepparton stamp are believed to be later (c1940s-70s)

 

Fritsch Holzer

Fritsch Holzer comes from Augustus Fritsch and the Holzer brothers (Martin and Aloysius Anton Holzer), who formed the Upper Hawthorn Brick Company in 1883.

The brickworks closed about 1970 and the site was bought by the Hawthorn Council in 1972 and used it as a tip until 1986, turning it into a park in 1996.

Reds and creams are common, and possibly the mottled browns for which Hawthorn Brick is known for the characteristic polychrome finish. Many bricks have one two or three raised dots, probably indicating tally marks for the separate presses, or operators. the style doesn't change, but there are subtle differences in the molds, indicating they were occasionally changed or renewed. there are two separate pairs of attachment screws in the frog, larger ones holding the main part with the company name and smaller ones holding the tally marks.

Butler's South Brunswick Brick Company Limited

The South Brunswick Brick Company Limited had its works near the corner of Albion Street and Henderson Street, in what is now Jones Park Brunswick. Founded and operated by Charles Butler, the bricks bare the frog impression of either "SOUTH BRUNSWICK", "S.B.B.C." or "C.BUTLER".

Early (1880s?) South Brunswick Bullnose Brick

1890s version

1930s-40s C Butler - from the kiln flues during demolition 1980s.

Cream version (from the permitter wall of the works taken 1980s.

Part of the works was destroyed by fire in 1949, and the works may not have recovered. Most bricks bearing the C Butler stamp are probably 1920s-1950s.
Butler died on 11th December 1901, aged 73.

Old Melbourne Town’ by Michael Cannon,

From OnMyDoorstep (possibly via Trove)


 Giuseppe Giudice at Charlie Butler's brickworks