“Clifton Creams” were one of the
best-known bricks in their day. Look
around at all those 60s cream brick veneer houses around Melbourne. There is a better than even money chance
that they were made by Clifton Bricks.
The business was started by David Clifton in 1890 from whom the company
took its name. It was not the best time
for David to start a brick works because
the land boom had ended and the depression of the 1890s bit hard. Their works and quarry was in St. Georges
Road Preston. It was known as the
“Northcote Brickworks. David lived in
one of the first three houses built in High Street Northcote.
His
quarry was enormous, being some 50 meters deep in the end. After it closed, like most others around
Melbourne, it became a rubbish dump. Now
filled, it has become the Ray Bramham Gardens.
They closed
intermittently over the years, due to declining sales and the larger works
selling off their own stocks below cost to keep going. They finally closed their doors in 1898. In 1907 the works were acquired by William
Angliss and A.H.Angliss. William
Angliss had acquired interests in a wide range of business activities. He was Chairman for many years of the Eagle
Star Insurance Co. Ltd, Benbow Mills Pty Ltd, Clifton Brick and Tile Co and Premier Printing Co., and Director of
the Mutual Store, Davies Co-op & Co Ltd, Australian Cement Ltd, Hume Pipe
Co. Ltd, Hume Steel Ltd and several other companies. By 1950 he was reputed to be Australia’s richest man.
The new Manager (and part-owner)
of Clifton Bricks was James Alexander Gamble who went on to start his own
company. The story goes that in 1915,
James (b 29th August 1864, Fitzroy, Victoria, d 13th May
1926) was driving his Buick car along Heads Gully Road (because the Head family
lived in the hollow near what later became the brick works) traveling towards
Fern Tree Gully when he saw an outcrop of exposed shale near a bridge across
the old frog hollow that had caused the widening of the road in 1860. James took a sample back to Clifton Bricks
and had it fired. It produced a good
quality red brick.
James sold his shares in Clifton Bricks
and used the £9,500 along with a loan from the ES&A Bank to build his
brickworks on former market garden land owned by Mr Hunt. James then started
“The New Gamble Brick and Quarrying Company, but that is another story.
It took a while, but things
slowly improved for Cliftons’ after the First World War. The company had earlier become a member of
the Co-operative Brick Company. This
group 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 pounds in
50,000 shares of 1 pound. The word ‘proprietory’ 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.
Frog Mould for Hand Made Bricks
The year 1947 was a bad
year for Clifton Bricks. In October, a
fire destroyed much of the works, the debris falling into the pit. Over £30,000
damage was caused to their six storey brick works. Also, as the suburbs developed, residents complained about the
vibrations caused by explosives at the quarry.
In August, 1947 Clifton Brick and Tile Company carried out vibration
tests on their brick pit at Preston. Tests were carried out at the brick pit on
December 17th, 1947 and February 2nd, 1948. Six charges of explosives were
detonated at different points in the brick pit and the amplitude of the ground
movement was recorded. Additional records were made of ground movement due to
other causes, such as vehicular traffic on a public roadway adjacent to the
brick pit. Tests were satisfactory as
the quarrying continued. In 1951 a
storm swept across the State, causing the pit to flood, covering several
trucks.
In
1952 Clifton Bricks took over Hoffman brickworks, and in 1965 acquired a
controlling interest in the Oakleigh Brick Company Pty Ltd although the
individual brick stamps continued to be used on their bricks. In the 1960s, Clifton Brick took over the
Brunswick brick works, they downsized operations and sold off
assets. By the 1990s, the complex was still in operation by Nubrik, but by 2005 the site had been abandoned and had
been developed as residential housing. The complex remains the only extant
example of the clay industry that was central to Brunswick's development.
They closed the works and sold
the assets. The company was taken over
by Brick and Pipe Industries Pty. Ltd., William Street, Melbourne, in
1966. Subsequent
mergers saw Clifton and Nubrick form the Austral Brick Company. The company was de-listed from the
Australian Stock Exchange on the 6th of March 1988. A piece of the property was provided to the
Brunswick Sheltered Workshop in 1968/
In 1968, Clifton Brick sold a further piece of land to them. Brick & Pipe Industries
was bought out by Pioneer Industries in
1994 who were then bought out by Bristile in 2000. Bristile then reverted to the Nubrik name.
Clifton
Brick Holdings Pty Ltd (83 004 49 181), Cliyton Brick Manufacturers Pty Ltd (63
004 539 104) are controlled entities of Brickworks ( 82 999 602 531)
