Northcote Brick Company Limited

The Northcote Patent Brickworks first appear in the Sands and MacDougall Directory in 1876.  They were the forerunner of the Northcote Brick Company Limited.   It had its beginnings with hotelier John Roberts, licensee of the Carters Arms Hotel on the corner of Separation and High Streets Northcote.  In 1867, John discovered clay on his property.  This clay was assessed as being suitable for brick and pipe making and was also found to be in sufficient quantity.    John had been a farmer in the area before opening the hotel.  He later sold a large part of the property to brothers Charles and Seymour Groom who then set about raising capital to set up the Northcote Patent Brick Company on the property.  It consisted of an eight-acre property on which a 12 metre deep pit developed.  John left the hotel in 1870 but returned to again run it in 1876 until 1881.  John died in 1887.

Production began in 1873 and the first kiln produced up to 2 million bricks per annum.  The business flourished and in 1882, a consortium of local businessmen purchased the Northcote Patent Brick Company and began the Northcote Brick Company.  Pressure testing of the bricks went to 70 tons, compared to 50 tons for most other bricks.  The Northcote Brick Company was registered on the 4^th of April 1882 and floated 30,000 shares in 1883.  John Roberts invested, as did George Plant, the only locals to do so.  John moved to Arthurton Road after he sold the hotel. A mortgage for £1,000 was taken out on the 4^th of September 1884 to help keep the business going. 

From their Prospectus; “To be registered under the "Companies Statute 1864." Capital: £50,000 in 50,000 Shares of £1 each, of which it is proposed to make a First Issue of 30,000 shares, 2s. 6d, payable on application, and 2s. 6d. on allotment; calls not to exceed 2s. 6d. per share, at intervals of not less than three months. It is not anticipated that more than 10s. per share will need to be called up.  The present proprietors will take a large interest in the undertaking.”

“This company is projected to purchase the property of the Northcote Brick Company (whose bricks are so favourably known to architects and the building trade) at a cost of £9,500, inclusive of all preliminary charges, and to extend and work the same. The property- consists of nine acres (more or less) freehold, situate at Northcote, on which is erected a kiln of seven compartments, holding 11,000 bricks each, giving a weekly output of (allowing for wasters) 70,000 bricks, in addition to which there is an open kiln, from which 94,000 are turned out monthly.”

“The present improvements consist of a substantial engine-house, containing one 10-horse power engine for hauling and grinding the clay and one 24-horse power engine for working the moulding machine, and which is capable of driving another.  The brick making machinery (Bradley and Craven's Patent) was selected by Mr. Lloyd Taylor, when in England in 1877, after testing the best in use with samples of Northcote clay - which a quantity was sent home for the purpose.”

“There is also on the ground a detached brick office, a weatherboard cottage for the overseer, and extensive sheds, under which 100,000 bricks can be dried, with a black smith's shop (containing ample tools and duplicates of machinery), and other necessary out-buildings attached; the whole forming a most complete plant, in perfect order.”

Also from their prospectus…" Melbourne, 20th February, 1882. "Gentlemen,- . ". . . I can confidently assert that the whole property, of about nine acres in extent, is entirely of the same character.  The beds -being nearly vertical there is. no limit to their extension in depth, it being merely a question of profitable extraction. . . . The large excavation from which brick clay has been removed is 43 ft. deep at the south end and: 33 ft. at the north. The-surface area of the quarry is between an eighth and a ninth part of the property. 'Your obedient servant, " (Signed) "Norman TayLon, late Field Geologist, Geological Survey of Victoria."

“Melbourne, 18/2/82 "Gentlemen.-We have made an inventory of the brick making plant at Northcote as pointed out by you, and we value the same at five thousand five hundred pounds. . "(Signed) "Robinson Bros, and Co'”

“The cost of making bricks as at present, with the machinery going less than half time, is 36s. 5d. per thousand, selling in the yard at 40s.. leaving 3s 7d. profit. It is proposed at once to erect an improved kiln at an outlay of. say, £4500, and it is estimated that the cost of the bricks then produced would not exceed 30s., leaving a margin of profit of 10s. per thousand.

It may be worth while noticing that the company will take over with the property an order for the supply of 1½ million of hricks for one contract.  The output for the six months ending the 3rd September, 1881, was 2,109,950. This would be more than doubled by the erection of the additional kiln, and should show a net profit of at least 25 per cent. per annum upon the paid-up capital of the company.”

Beacause of the land boom in the 1880s, they wasted no time and constructed a Hoffman Kiln.  A second Hoffman kiln was built in 1886.  By 1889 their output was 4 million bricks a month.  They became a victim of their own success when the New Northcote Brick Company opened nearby in Dennis Street in 1887.  They were to be competitors for decades.

In 1887 the Northcote Brick Company purchased land for a railway siding.  One of the sellers was Thomas Bent, later to become Premier of Victoria and notorious land speculator.

Production ceased for two months in 1889 due to a strike by their brick carters.  They wanted an increase, but the brick works said that they could bring coal back from the rail on their return journey, thus increasing their pay.  There were 110 carters, of whom 80 were union members.  The sticking point being the cost of horse feed.  The carters insisted that contractors paid them at a higher rate than the brick works.  The depression began in 1890 compounding this problem and the works only survived by selling its stockpiles.  Demand dropped and their prices followed. 

Both works continued with greatly reduced production.  Only two kilns of their five were kept operating at the Northcote Brick Company.  The companies were major employers in the area, with over 500 staff between them and local business dependent on them were also badly affected.  Output dropped by 10.5 million bricks and the works closed periodically.  Something had to be done.

Talk of amalgamation began in 1891.  In 1896, the Co-operative Brick Company Limited was formed by agreement between the Hoffman Patent Steam Brick Co., Northcote Brick Co. Ltd., New Northcote Brick Co. Ltd., Chas. Butler & Son and Fritsch, Holzer and Co., and registered on 10 September 1896. Authorized capital was £50,000 in 50,000 shares of £1. The word ‘proprietary’ was added and registered on 11 February 1897. Authorized capital was increased to £150,000 on 17 July 1927.  During its 70 years of business the Oakleigh Brick Co., Clifton Brick Co., Blackburn Brick Co., City Brick Co., and the Standard Brick Co. (Box Hill) became associated.  (The company was taken over by Brick and Pipe Industries Pty. Ltd., William Street, Melbourne, in 1966.)

In 1900 the plant was electrified.  Additional land was purchased in 1901 and 1902.  A new Thomson steam engine was installed in 1903.  Additional boiler equipment from Babcock and Wilcox was installed in 1903 as were new brick presses from the Austral Engineering Company.  This boiler lasted until 1915 when it was replaced by another Thomson boiler.  The agreement with Victorian Railways for the use of the siding was  renegotiated in 1920.  In 1926 additional land on the west aide of Weston Street was acquired.

Most brick works suffered another downturn and loss of staff, but not at Northcote.  A new steam works was built in 1919.  By 1920, the company was enjoying record profits.  But the good time could not last and the great depression again slashed demand.  In 1931, only 12 homes were built in Northcote compared to nearly 700 in 1924/25 and staff had been cut to 37 people.  To keep going, they sold part of their land behind the Carters Arms to the Northcote Council who intended to create a park, but this never happened.  The brickworks again had to close intermittently.

By the end of the 1930s, they had started to get back on their feet but staff numbers were still low, at around 100.  Then came World War 2.  Most men enlisted and demand fell.  When the war ended, their workers did not return in sufficient numbers.  The baby boom improved sales, but by 1962, there was an amalgamation with the New Northcote Brick Company.

In 1977, the old brick pit was sold to the Northcote council to be used as a tip for the next 25 years.  In 1979 the old kilns and the rest of the buildings, including the chimneys were demolished.  The site was then sold to developers.  In 1981 Northcote Plaza was built on the site of the old brick works.  The tip took 25 years to fill and closed in 1998.  The land was rehabilitated and is now the All Nation Park, opening in 2002.

Later, the company merged with Nubrik and Clifton Bricks to form Austral Bricks.  Next time you drive through Cragieburn, look at their giant works to the side of the freeway.