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)

Baxter & McKell

Abraham Baxter (Snr) and John Mc Kell acquired the brick works in Stamford Road Oakleigh in 1908 from Henry Ethell.  John McKell had previously been the Manager of the South Yarra Brickworks, formerly the Excelsior brickworks  in Chapel Street.  It appears that there had been an earlier family involvement, from Abraham (Snr) from around 1903.  At the time, three rectangular downdraught kilns operated there with capacities to accommodate from 40,000 to 60,000 bricks each.  Henry  Ethell did not enjoy a long retirement after the sale because he died at his home in Clyde Street Oakleigh the following year. 

The land began as a site for brick making on the 27th of April 1885 when Howard Tapley Clarton transferred ownership to John and Henry Goding.  Howard Tapley Clarton (1836 to 1902) was a man with either a casual acquaintance with the truth, or personal financial management ability.  Howard features prominently in the courts over an extended period.  As a Land Agent, he once applied to be allowed to pay one farthing in the pound on a 38,000 debt.  This was rejected.  Originally named Clarton Street, it was later renamed Stamford Road.  Was this as a result of Howard’s colourful business dealings?

The property was sold to Edwin Wade on the 8th of December 1887 who only owned the land until the 28th of May 1898 when it was again sold; this time to Henry Ethell. He lasted considerably longer when he sold to Abraham Baxter and John Mc Kell on the 21st of January 1908.  They held the land and sold to their company, the Oakleigh Brick works on the 23rd of July 1921.

On the 3^rd of February 1910, the local paper carried an article saying that “Owing to the want of coal, the Oakleigh brickworks, employing about 60 men, have been closed down for the present.   The works have been carried on with a reduced staff for the past five weeks.”

A revamped company began operating in 1917.  Mr H.F. Young of the Northcote Brick Company was appointed as the Managing Director.  Again in 1928, another restructure took place and a new group of shareholders took over the company.  

Abraham Felix Baxter was born in Prahran, Melbourne on the 22^nd of July 1880 to Abraham and Harriett (nee Booth).  He went to Wesley College in Melbourne and began his career with his father in the family firm of Baxter and Saddler.  Between 1901 and 1906, Abraham worked as a Railway Contractor with his brother George in Western Australia before returning to Victoria to join his brother Charles breeding horses near Ballarat.  Abraham Snr bought out Henry Ethell outright in 1908 and Abraham Jnr joined him there in 1910.  His father later made him their Manager.  (George supplied one and a half million railway sleepers to South Africa in 1901.)

On the 17^th of March, 1918, Abraham married Margaret Mary Chapman (1883 to 1968).  They had two sons, James Abraham b 1909, Robert Walker b 1914 and one daughter Thelma Jean b 1919.

The year 1918, continued to be a busy one for Abraham; the Oakleigh Brick Company was sold to the Co-operative Brick Company and Abraham (Jnr) stayed on as Manager.  John McKell also continued to manage the South Yarra Brick Company.    The Oakleigh Brick Company followed others on the same site.  Previously there were the Excelsior Brick Works and the Eureka Brick Works.

Abraham died at his home in Clyde Street Oakleigh on the 22^nd of October 1945.

Historic Brick Collection

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