Clifton Brick

“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 29^th August 1864, Fitzroy, Victoria, d 13^th 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 6^th 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)