Brick Carting

One of the last jobs to be automated at the brick works was that of brick carting.  In Melbourne, Brick Carters were specifically licensed by the State Government to operate from a particular brick works and only within a specific radius.  To be a good brick carter took experience, skill and judgement.  Safe load management was key.

Brick Carters would collect bricks from the works after they had been unloaded from the kiln and load them onto a wagon, or truck.  Originally, wooden wagons were drawn by horses or bullocks, depending on the size of the load.  Bricks are heavy, so loads could not be too large or the wagon or its axle could break during loading.  This has led to death and injury in the past when a load was not prepared carefully.  Later, trucks brought their own issues.

In 1911, an association, “The Master Brick Carters Association” was formed in New South Wales.  This became the “Master Brick Carters Association” and continued from 1923 until 1949.  In earlier times, it was customary for a one-horse dray to carry 500 bricks.  The average brick weighs over 3kg, thus making the load of over 1500kg plus the weight of the cart and driver.  A healthy horse on level ground can do this with relative ease, but going up a hill puts a strain on it.  

Coming down a hill also creates problems because the metal shoes could slip on uneven ground.  On a fine day this is difficult, but on a wet day, or on the muddy roads around Oakleigh at the time, carts became bogged, or would slip on the poor Roads and loads could shift.   A Brick Carter couldn’t win.  Councils needed broken bricks for the roads because heavy wagons damaged the roads.

It was a hard life for both man and horse but the pay for the time was good.  The average brick veneer home today contains 10,000 bricks, so at least 20 trips per house were needed because many houses in earlier times were solid brick and had higher ceilings, so more trips were necessary.

No story of bricks in Oakleigh would be complete without mentioning the Worn family.  Thomas arrived in Oakleigh in 1926 with five horses and a wagon.  After sharing a house in Clyde Street with his brother William, he moved to a house on the Corner of York Street and Dandenong Road where the horses were stabled in his back yard.  Another brother John (known as Jack) was also working as a carrier in the area.  The brothers were born in Castlemaine to George Reason Worn, also a carter and his wife Ann Elizabeth.

In the 1930s, Jack carted the broken bricks that helped fill Scott’s disused brickpit on Dandenong Road between Tamar Grove and Clyde Streets.  The Houses there were only permitted to be built on top because the fill was so solid.  Thomas married Anne Elizabeth Cripps in 1929 and shortly afterwards sold his horses and bought a truck.  Five horses needed a lot of attention and Thomas was quite a careful owner. 

He was an exception among carters as there are many examples of cruelty by owners to their horses.  He would rise at 3:00am to feed and harness them before starting work at the Oakleigh Brick Company in Stamford Road at 5:00am.  Thomas later reduced his team from five to three horses, one horse in front and two behind.  This team could haul 750 bricks.   He always said that March was the worst month for horses because the humidity made them uncomfortable and they would sweat profusely. 

On arrival at the kiln, Thomas would come in through the main gate at Stamford Road and pull up beside the kiln where the unloaders (setters) had stacked the bricks.  He would load the wagon by hand, two bricks at a time.  This usually took about one hour.  He delivered all over the district.   He could deliver three loads per day.  Coal was also delivered from Ships at South Wharf to fire the kiln.  It was not until the 1960s that brown coal from the LaTrobe Valley was used.   The coal was unloaded onto platforms between the Hoffman kilns and a horse would lift the coal by pulling the bags up on a rope through a pulley wheel.  The coal would then be tipped into the firebox through vents in the roof to regulate the fire.  

On arrival at the delivery site, he would alight from the wagon and walk to the delivery point.  In those days there were few made Roads and because the soil was clay, in wet weather a wagon could easily get bogged.  He would then back the wagon down hill to a site to make sure that the horses could get out forward.  The mud sticking to the wagon made the load for the horses more difficult.

In 1930, Thomas bought a Ford truck.   It was the start of the depression and work had become scarce.  The family moved to Western Victoria where Thomas worked on “Wild Dog Road”, in Apollo Bay, part of the Great Ocean Road project.  In the late 1930s, Thomas returned to Oakleigh.  His ownership of the truck was short lived as the Government conscripted it for war work.  Thomas was not happy, and his wife even more so.  Her son Doug said that it was the only time he ever saw his mother lose her temper.  After World War II, there were no more horses used by Thomas. 

To keep the wolf from the door in the tough times, Thomas would put sideboards on the tray and load up the brick dust from the kilns to sell to people to make driveways for their homes.  In those days, a concrete driveway was still a long way into the future.  Councils also used broken bricks and dust to use as Road base. 

He bought a new 1949 Bedford and his son Doug had begun working with him.  The truck could hold 1500 bricks, 2000 at a pinch, but speed was then cut to 20mph.  In the 1960s, Oakleigh Bricks moved from press-moulded bricks to wire cut bricks.  They were lighter and increased loads could be safely loaded, this made loads of 2000 bricks standard.

Sometimes bricks would be unloaded from the kilns before they were properly cooled.  On Fridays, the bricks in the Hoffman kiln would sometimes catch up to the fire.  Doug tells of having the timber frame behind the truck cabin scorched by the still too hot bricks. 

Doug continued as a brick Carter for the Oakleigh Brick Company and later after they closed, with Clifton Bricks.  He later became a courier until his retirement.  Doug is fortunate not to have suffered with many of the physical disabilities such as arthritis and rheumatism that have plagued so many of his contemporaries.  Thomas Leslie Worn died at the age of 84 in 1984 and was cremated at Springvale Botanical Cemetery.

Today, bricks at the remaining super brick-works are now are loaded onto pallets and put onto trucks by forklift’ but forklifts were not introduced to Oakleigh Brick Co. until the 1960s.  Bricks were still loaded onto the carter’s trucks by hand.  

Ceramic Transport Pty Ltd

With the consolidation of ownership of the brick companies, it was only natural that similar arrangements occur with brick carting.  This company began as a wholely owned subsidiary of Brick and Pipe Industries.  They were located at 125 Springvale Road, at the corner of Smiths Road, opposite the Sandown Racecourse.

With the demise of the smaller brick companies, and the subsequent loss of work for the smaller brick carters, this company operated a fleet of vehicles to transport bricks.