The Ethell Family of Brick Makers

Another family that had an intimate part in the making of bricks and tiles in Victoria, and Oakleigh was that of Daniel Ethell.  In the 19^th Century, skilled migration to the colony was encouraged by the Government and Daniel arrived in Port Phillip aboard the ship Marco Polo 6th December 1856 from Liverpool with 419 other persons on board.

The ship left Liverpool with ships Master James Clark on the 5th August 1856. This ship was previously famous for the fastest trip to and from Australia when in 1852 Captain James Nicol Forbes sailed the great southern route via the Antarctic almost halving the time to 68 days out and 76 days back. Also on the same voyage, the ship lost 53 lives, mostly children to a measles epidemic brought about by overcrowding 881 passengers. Only two adults died in what was the second worst death rate amongst the so-called Plague Ships.

Daniel began brick making immediately on his arrival, working for George Preston of Hart and Preston in Prahran for about twelve months.  (Daniel's wife was Sarah Preston, any relation?) They made bricks in 1853 immediately below the toll-gate, near the Richmond Bridge in Chapel St.  This site is currently located near Malcolm St (the Como site).

The manufacture of bricks required kilns in which to burn them, and wood for the fires. The hungry furnace maws of brick kilns consume tons of wood, and so it came to pass that Prahran not only enjoyed the profits of brick making, but at the same time was cleared of timber. The smoke by day, the glare by night of the brick kilns, at all points of the compass, was a notable impression of early Prahran.  Daniel's wife and family joined him in Australia in 1858. The address given in his wife's departure record was Chapel St and Gardiner's Creek Road (Toorak Road). In 1859 Daniel commenced brick making for himself in Hawthorn, carrying on that business for four years. 

Like Prahran, Hawthorn's emergence as a township with established residences and locally provided services depended on its economic relationship with Melbourne. While the timber cutters moved further out in search of new forests, brick makers tapped the Hawthorn area for clay. Hawthorn was described at the time as possessing the advantages of Prahran for "brick earth", claiming the deepest beds of clay were in Red Gum Flat (Auburn), the area east of the village, and in the lower parts about Gardiners Creek.

In 1863 he moved the business to Pohlman St, (now A'Beckett St) Armadale. The business directory of the time lists Ethell:-Charles, Daniel & William as Brick makers Prahran. Council Records show he paid rates on 2 acres in Orrong Rd Prahran. The clay pit and brickworks is now Orrong Park.  At the commencement of his brick works in Armadale he produced 8 to 10,000 handmade bricks per week. Like most works at the time, the clay was hoisted and ground by horse-power. Production went to supply principally local demand. Daniel Ethell died, aged 62, in 1876.  The Brick making business carried on by his widow Sarah.

His son Thomas Ethell (1839-1918) began making bricks in Jasper Road, East Brighton in 1892.  His works were called the “Ardwicke Brickworks, ” (also the name of his home), later the “Ardwicke Steam Brickworks.”  There were some hard years during the depression of the 1890s and some of the family went to Western Australia to help build the overland telegraph.  Following their return to Victoria, the business was floated around 1910 and continued until the early 1920s, producing “Star” brand roofing tiles.  They also made concrete roofing tiles.

The Jasper Road pit was not as deep as that at the South rd or Brentwood Street pits, which were about 60 feet deep.  It may have been lack of deep of clay that caused the works to stop. For some time the water-filled pit contained blue and yellow coloured fish, regarded by the local boys as strange and wild looking fish, possibly poisonous.  This was in contrast to the Brentwood Street hole, which had golden carp and redfin and other good fish, caught for 6 pence for all day, with bait of flour dough on their hooks. One boy drowned there, but no deaths were recalled at Halley Park.

The family diversified into other areas, Thomas’ brother Henry Ethell purchased brickworks in Stamford Road Oakleigh from Edwin Wade in 1897.  Henry was born 20^th August 1842 in Manchester, England and died in Oakleigh on the 14^th of August 1909.  Henry was living in High St, Prahran at the time of his father’s death.  After taking over the old Wade and Wright brick works, he   turned it into a successful business. The machinery there took time to re-commission and an astute investment for Ethell was the purchase of wire-cutting machinery.

Mr. Graham Ethell told of his father, Edmund after coming home from the Boer War, where he served in the 5th Victorian Mounted Rifles, and before joining the Police Force, helping at the Brickworks. One particular horse, when his cart was loaded, would amble three parts around the block, giving Edmund time to have a cup of tea after shifting the heavy load before driving the horse to the delivery site. 

By 1903 a dozen workers were able to produce 10,000 to 12,000 bricks per day, for delivery to metropolitan and country markets. The clay pit being worked proved to be of excellent composition for bricks and pipeclay. The extracted material was conveyed by trucks on railed track to the hopper and fed into a mill where it was ground, sieved, worked into a plug, and then forced into dies, emerging to be wire cut into bricks. These were lifted to a drying area and stacked until ready for the Kiln.  Three kilns operated with capacities to accommodate from 40,000 to 60,000 bricks. Ethell's brickworks was sold in 1908 a year prior to his death to Abraham Baxter and John McKell.

Richard (Dick) Arthur Ethell (1873-1956) purchased the property on the corner of Dandenong and Ferntree Gully Roads from Fritz Ernest Frankenberg on the 29^th October 1914.  Richard was living at “Lara”, Davey Avenue at the time.  He owned the property until the 23^rd of December 1919 when it was sold to Harold Frank Hunt.  He later sold it to the Terracotta Roofing Tile Company on the 24^th of March 1921. 

(Thanks to the Prosser and Sharman Family Tree for much of this).