Context

Historic context

Victoria has developed exponentially since European settlement. Originally timber huts housed a small but growing population. A legacy of the gold rush of the 1850s was an oversupply of underemployed miners. The extensive basalt plains of Victoria were a fertile ground for stonemasons who built the magnificent cities we see in Victoria today. These masons could not keep up with the demand as working basalt is a slow process. Brick makers then filled this gap and brick works popped up all over the colony as the population grew more affluent and wanted a better standard of housing.

This cultural and industrial heritage has largely been lost. The brick kilns are now gone. But the bricks remain. They are everywhere. Australia is now, as has been for a long time, the world’s largest per capita consumer of bricks. Nobody gives them a second thought. Many new arrivals in post-war Australia worked making bricks. Maybe one of your relatives was such a person. Almost nothing has been done in Victoria by the State Government to record this history, except a half-hearted attempt in the early 1980s by the Victoria State Archaeological Survey to record a few brick that came their way at a few sites. What ever became of them? Although some good came of it because a paper on “The Analysis of Bricks from Archaeological Sites in Australia; IAIN STUART” was produced. See it at http://www.jcis.net.au/data/23-04-Stuart.pdf


Even half the bricks we use today smash like China tea-pots if you drop them from any sort of height. Not like the old Victorian bricks. Oh no, they knew how to build houses in those days.

“Blue Collar”, P16, Danny King



What I want to do here is to show pictures of some of the bricks I have come across in my travels and give a short story about their maker. If you have anything to add, please let me know. PS: I do not collect bricks, only photographs of bricks. If you have some old bricks, let me know and I may come and photograph them and maybe find a story about them.

Saturday, December 14, 2013

Spear (City Bricks)


A two for one deal here, not to be confused with Speare in Tempe NSW, A Spear and Sons were a firm of brickmakers located in Victoria Road Upper Hawthorn.  Founded in 1857 by Frederick Spear, who arrived in Victoria aged 34 in 1853 on the ship “Earle Gray” as an assisted migrant.  This means that Frederick had a skill in demand in the colony.  He operated the company until his death on the 21st of October 1884.  There were only two people working there producing between 8-10,000 per week at the beginning and around 12 when the sons took over.  His widow continued the business with her son T.H Spear and his two brothers Frederick (Jnr) and Harold.  Their bricks were all hand made in the 1800s and they produced between 30-40,000 bricks per week.


Around the turn of the century, Spears became City Bricks with Frederick Jnr as the Company Secretary.  They employed between 80 to 90 staff.  As we know, City Brick was one of the original members of the Co-operative Brick Company.  Their advertising until 1904 referred to City Bricks, late A Spear & Sons.   As well as the works in Hawthorn, they also built a works at Tooronga (Malvern).  This operated until 1963 when it moved to Scoresby.  The pit closed in 1983.


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2 comments:

  1. UnknownMarch 16, 2015 at 12:49 AM

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  2. DavidDecember 29, 2023 at 1:16 AM

    Is this post still being monitered as i have a question about a particular spear brick

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