Reliance Tile Company Pty Ltd

Later Reliance Tiles Pty Ltd

Then the Wellburn Tiling Co.

Location  -37.894355, 145.107679

Whitton Street to the South, Parkinson Street to the East, Huntingdale Road to the West and Scotchmans Creek Catchment to the North.

Most people would never have heard of this small company that made roofing tiles from a plant in East Oakleigh partly on the site now occupied by the Monash University Regiment between Huntingdale Road, Parkinson and Whiton Streets.   This was the location of their pit and later a kiln.  The rest of the works was on the diagonally opposite corner.   

The Site, 1931

Originally known as “Reliance Tiles Pty Ltd”, they began operating at this site from the 21^st of December 1921 making “Star” brand roofing tiles.   This Company was originally located in Jasper Road Bentleigh and owned the property until the 27th of August 1941.  

The Site, 1945

Roofing tiles had previously been made at their works in Brighton, but production there had ceased.  The company was originally owned by Thomas Ethell.  See more about him on another post on the Ethell family.  From then it was owned by James Henry Dee and Percy Victor Dunn, operating as the Wellburn Tiling Company, continuing through the Second World War until 1962 when some of the site was sold to the Melbourne and Metropolitan Board of Works, (MMBW). 

The Site in 1968

The regiment, which is known as MONUR traces its origins back to 8 March 1966, when the Monash University Company was formed as a detachment of the Melbourne University Regiment (MUR).  On 23 February 1970 it ceased to be the Monash University Company of MUR, and became its own regiment. The Regiment recently celebrated its 40th birthday.  However on the 1^st of January 2013 the Regiment again became a company sized unit within Melbourne University Regiment.

  

The Site In 1972

And if you look closely, you can still see the Parch Mark of the kiln

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).

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. 

  

Terracotta Roofing Tile Company Pty Ltd

Corner of Ferntree Gully Road and Dandenong Road Oakleigh

Holders of Title on the property were as follows; 

From	To	Owner	Born	Died
27 Mar 1890	29 Jan 1902	Clara Eliza Collins	1849	1902
29 Jan 1902	17 Jun 1902	Ida Segemeier
17 Jun 1902	2 Mar 1906	Ellen Matilda Green
2 Mar 1906	19 Jun 1909	Joseph Murray
19 Jun 1909	24 Nov 1909	Frank Oliver Harford	1864	1942
24 Jan 1909	2 Jun 1910	John Hendy
2 Jun 1910	22 Mar 1912	Frederick Oscar Bornum John Lemmon Peter Finlayson
22 Mar 1912	29 Oct 1914	Fritz Ernest Frankenberg	1877	1960
29 Oct 1914	23 Dec 1919	Richard Arthur Ethell	1873
23 Dec 1919	24 Mar 1921	Harold Frank Hunt	1878
24 Mar 1921	19 Aug 1930	ErnestHenry Montague Ratcliff	1863	1938

Most people would never have heard of this small company that made roofing tiles from a plant that had changed hands several times over many years.

Site of Terra Cotta Roofing Tiles Company in 1931
(After the Works equipment was sold off in 1930)

One of the early shareholders (250 shares) was Sir George Tallis (1869-1948), theatrical entrepreneur.  Tallis was closely associated with J. C. Williamson (The Firm) for over fifty years.  In 1896 he bought a quarter share in the company; in 1904 Williamson accepted him as a partner. Sarah Bernhardt's tour of Australia in 1891 marked a high point in his early career and in 1911 he was involved in planning Dame Nellie Melba’s opera season.

On Williamson's death in 1913, Tallis became a managing director of 'the Firm'. He was knighted in 1922 for services to the theatre and for wartime fund-raising. In 1926 he gave £2700 to the Melbourne University Conservatorium of Music for an additional wing, named after him. His diverse interests during the 1920s included a directorship of radio station 3LO and an association with the pioneering Australian film-maker F.W. Thring, father of actor Frank Thring. 

After having retired in 1931 through ill health, Tallis travelled widely and bred Ayrshires at his property, Beleura, on the Mornington Peninsula, Victoria. He died at Wagga Wagga, New South Wales, on 15 August 1948 and was cremated. A daughter and three sons survived him. His estate was sworn for probate at £163,460.

Many of the other shareholders were from around the Victorian country towns of Shepparton and Numerkah.  Just what that country connection is, I do not know.

The original Company Directors were:

James MacPherson Proctor

Garnet Raymond Cato

John Hosking

Reginald Francis Cox

Thomas Crossthwaite

To be later replaced by:

John Wesley McComas

Utar James Nicholas

Harold Frank Hunt

James McEwan Carroll

Henry Ezekiel Ireland and

Graeme Stobie; with

Wifred MacCrae Howitt as Company Secretary.

Their Memorandum of Association gives their stated aim as: “To carry on the business of manufacturers of and dealers in roofing tiles, tiles, bricks, ridging, air-bricks, pipes, pottery, earthenware, china, terracotta, ceramic ware of all kinds, lime and cement.”

As well as roofing tiles, the company also made roof ridging, air-bricks, (for sub-floor ventilation) drain pipes and chimney pots.  Terra Cotta roof tiles became popular during and after the First World War because corrugated iron and roof slates were in short supply and became prohibitively expensive.  The company used the railway siding at Oakleigh Station built by the Brick and Tile (Oakleigh Station) Company.  Half their output was supplied to Dunlop and Hunt Home Builders Limited, a large Melbourne builder.   They also later held 1000 shares in the company.  The Company Directors were not so involves, having only one share each.

In 1922 hope began evaporating as sales could not keep pace with production.  Their Annual Report said that; “during the early months of this year business was stagnant and as a result, stock accumulated.”  There was no requirement for Hunt's works on the intersection of Dandenong and Fern tree Gully Roads to be brought into production.  Frank Harvey had to resign due to ill health and was replaced by Mr W Turner who had been working at the tile works.  Before starting here, he had run his own tile works.

From the start, profits were never good, and the Annual Reports always predicted better days, until 1926 when the company made a significant loss.  Just before the Great Depression hit, they reported; “After having passed through such a period of trade depression as has occurred, your Directors feel very hopeful regarding the future of the Company and look with a greater degree of certainty than in previous years, to a profit-earning corporation.”  This did not happen and in 1927 the Directors reported; “your Board was forced to close down the works for the time being and to rely upon its resources apart from continuing production,” 

  

  Original List of Shareholders From 1921

There were two companies in Oakleigh that specialized in making clay roofing tiles.  Evans Brothers in Park Road and this one, the relatively short-lived Terra Cotta Roofing Tile Company.  The type of tile they produced was a form of the “Marseilles” tile.  Until World War 1, most roofing tiles were imported, but when imports ceased, local makers filled the void.  First made in France in 1874, they became popular when the moulds and presses were sold as a package deal.  They became the first world standard for roofing tiles.

The “Marseilles” tiles can best be described as interlocking tiles with both the top and side locking into another tile.  This improves both wind and water protection and is also a good noise and heat insulator.  Like bricks, roof tiles were made close to the source of clay.  Terracotta tiles have been used for milennia because of their ease of manufacture and durability.  Even though concrete tiles are now popular, terracotta retains its reputation as a better product.  Warranties for concrete tiles are around half as long as those for terracotta.

Terra cotta is Italian, and Latin for baked earth.  Usually a term to describe items made from a naturally reddish-brown / orange colour. Sometimes describing an unglazed or a porous pottery body.  Roof tiles are "hung" from the framework of a roof by fixing them with nails or tied to the battens with wire.  The tiles are usually hung in parallel rows with each row overlapping the row below it to exclude rainwater and to cover the nails that hold the row below.  There are also roof tiles for special positions, particularly where the planes of the several pitches meet.  They include ridge, hip and valley tiles.These can either be bedded and pointed in cement mortar or mechanically fixed.

Making tiles is very similar to making bricks.  The digging and milling of the clay is the same.  The prepared clay is pressed through a roller and the tiles are stamped out.  Trimming the edges was originally done by hand and the green tiles stacked in a drying shed.  This could take several days, depending on the weather and season.  The tiles were then loaded into a kiln and cooked the same way as bricks.

1.   The process began with the extraction of the clay.  
Tiles were sometimes made by mixing several types of clay, or rock like material but the shale of Oakleigh was ideal for roofing tiles.

2.   The mixed clay was stockpiled to age the material.

3.  The clay was then blended by an apron feeder, a series of steel pans attached to a chain drive that drew the crushed clay from the stockpile at a controlled speed and thickness.

4.   The blended clay was fed into a wet pan where it was extruded through a perforated   floor.

5.   The clay was then crushed through differential rollers set about 1.5 metres apart.

6.   The clay then went through a second set of rollers about .75 metres apart.

7.   The now powdered mixture was then fed into a store mixer.

8.   The clay was then extruded through a pug-mill and cut into lengths to form batts.

9.   The batts were fed into a mechanical press that formed them into the required shape and size.

10. These “green” tiles were then stacked in a stillage. 
(A pallet or skid with a cage or sides or some form of support tailored to the material it is intended to carry.  Some designs are stackable.)

11.  Tiles were air-dried until the moisture content was significantly reduced.

12.  The downdraught kilns fired the tiles.

13.  The fired tiles were sorted and stacked.

The equipment fitted to the works in Oakleigh was modern by the standards of the day.  A 16 horsepower Seimens electric motor drove the equipment including a 30 horsepower Bates suction gas engine.  Following the 1850s gold-rushes, Victoria had become the key centre of manufacturing in Australia and its industrialists were early adopters of gas engines, an early namr for what now are known as internal combustion engines.  The early atmospheric gas engines provided a more cost-effective alternative to steam power.  The vertical format and limited weight of many early gas engines allowed them to be bolted directly to the floor alongside machinery or other equipment, with no need for a separate boiler house or large external brick chimney.

There were two kilns capable of producing 500,000 tiles per annum.  The site was sizeable enough to hold another kiln, although it appears it was not built.  There were also racks holding 20,000 tiles and capacity for another 30,000 was also available.  The Company   prospectus stated that there was thirty years clay available on site.  Their “Empire” brand tiles were described as the best roofing tiles on the market.

Their Works Manager was Mr Frederick Harvey.  Fred had 25 years experience in the industry, having worked for W.H Rocke & Co, the Mitcham Tile Works and Wunderlich Ltd.    In a letter to the General Manger of the Terracotta Roofing Tile Company, he said:  “With an extra kiln and more tile trays, I consider that I could add 20,000 tiles per month to the output of the works.  The cost of this extra output would be merely the cost of making, burning etc. as there would be practically no extra overhead charges.  Of course, the larger the output, the smaller the cost per thousand tiles.

As I have before stated, my experience in the leading tile manufactories of Australia has given me proof that there is nothing better on the market than “Empire” tiles and I know from our customers that if we had treble the present output, we could find a ready market for the whole lot.  The prospects of the Company are therefore, in my opinion, very bright.”  Unfortunately, as mentioned earlier, his health failed.

W.H.Rocke & Co first imported “Marseilles” tiles to Australia in 1886.  Originally grey in colour, they were soon being made in the now familiar red terra cotta used in what was called the “Queen Anne” style and after a slow start, became the most prolific roofing material used, first in Sydney, then later Melbourne and the rest of Australia.   Rocke was originally a furniture company, but after early imports dried up during the depression of the 1890s, they were taken over by Wunderlich who began making their own version.

Imports of tiles again dried up in 1915 and local makers looked to local engineers to make machinery to produce roofing tiles.  George Foster & Sons eventually produced the “Foster Pentagon Drum Machine’ capable of churning out 5,000 tiles a day.  It is likely that this is what was in use in Oakleigh.  Wunderlich in New South Wales had pioneered the manufacture of the “Marseilles” tile in Australia and by the mid 1930s, they were being made by them in their millions.  Economies of scale meant that smaller companies could not compete and were soon out of business.

Wunderlich was a family business started by Ernest, Julius and Frederick Wunderlich.  The firm grew into a highly successful company with branches in all Australian States and in Wellington, New Zealand. Wunderlich Ltd was the first Australian firm to introduce a 44 hour week without a pay reduction (1908) and in 1914 started a profit-sharing scheme for employees.

Oakleigh Junction Brick Company

Also advertised in the Sands and Macdougall Directory of 1911 and 1912 as the Junction Steam Brick Co. (J.Hendy) Real High Grade Steam Bricks. Oakleigh; and 1915 as the Junction Brick Co. Pty Ltd. Dandenong Rd. Oak.  They appear to have had two incarnations, one as a brick works and the second as a roofing tile maker.

Location -37.896937, 145.100598

Ferntree Gully Road to the North, Dandenong Road to the South and Tanner Street to the East.

This was another of the small, short-lived companies in Oakleigh.  They were located on that small triangle of land now serving as parkland (Hurst Park) on the corner of Dandenong and Fern Tree Gully Roads.  Even though they called themselves a company, there is no record of them registering as a company in Victoria.  A sole trader making bricks is not an easy life and there is no further mention of this brick works.    

This triangle of land was part of the original Oakleigh East sub-division.  On the 27th of March 1890 the land was purchased by Clara Eliza Collins.   This block was inherited by Ida Segemeier when Clara died on the 29th of January 1902.  Ida sold it almost immediately to Ellen Matilda Green on the 17th of June 1902.  She then sold it to Joseph Murray, 3rd of March 1906.  

This is where brick-making enters the picture.  The block was sub-divided and sold to Frank Oliver Harford on the 15th of June 1909, and the other block to John Hendy on the 24th of November 1909.  Both men were builders.  John bought out Frank on the 24th of November 1909 and consolidated the blocks where they then began brick making.  This did not last long because the land was again sold, this time to Frederick Oscar Bornum. Peter Finlayson and John Lemmon on the 2nd of June 1910, shortly after Frank and John's partnership dissolved. 

They couldn't make a go of it either and sold to Fritz Ernest Frankenberg on the 22nd of March 1912.  This is where the business went belly up with the plant and equipment being sold off., ownership was also short-lived and Fritz sold to Richard Arthur Ethell (another of Thomas's sons) the transfer happened on the 29th of October 1914.  The company is now listed in Sands and MacDougall under "Tile Makers."

Richard later sold to Harold Frank Hunt on the 23rd of December 1919.  (Harold dropped off the perch a couple of years after he sold off the works.) 

This next bit is where it could get confusing because Harold Hunt sold to the Terracotta Roofing Tile Company on the 24th of March 1921.  I suspect he saw a chance to offload what these days would be seen as an under performing asset but Harold was also a shareholder in the Terracotta Roofing Tile Company.  I thing Harold probably did better out of the deal.  

For some time after the Junction Brickworks closed, their boiler was kept lit in the hope that the business would resume.  It was not still going in 1921.  This resumption of works did not happen and even when the Terracotta company took over, sales never matched production   and the site eventually lay idle, becoming a dangerous eyesore and health hazard.  They owned the land until the 18th of August 1939 when it was acquired by Ernest Henry Montague Ratcliff (1863-1938).  Ernest was also a Director of the nearby Glen Iris Brick Company.  

The property had lain idle since the closure of the Terra Cotta Roofing Tile Company (see separate post) The vacant site became a dumping ground and quickly became a health hazard.  Whatever plans Ernest may have had for the site, they never came to fruition and the Council took legal action against Ernest to clean up the site.

The partnership of J.Hendy, F.Harford and B.Rapley dissolved in 1910.  It is noted that the witness to this agreement was William Ethell. 

 According to the Oakleigh Council records, in July 1927, Council decided they needed a new site for a tip.  Cr Andrews moved that a hole on Dandenong Road be used, but Councillors threatened to resign if this was done.  In 1928 The East Oakleigh League wrote to the Council drawing attention to the unsightly condition of the defunct tile works on the corner of Dandenong and Fern Tree Gully Roads.  They suggested that Council purchase the property and make it into gardens.  The owners wanted £5,000.  Council said that they would pay only £2,500 for it – but no money was available.

 Junction Brick Works Site 1931

On the 17^th of April 1929 the owners of the disused tile works at the corner of Dandenong and Fern Tree Gully Roads were given 14 days to erect a substantial fence around the clay hole.  There is a reference to this company being started by the Moroney Brothers but there appears to be no evidence of this.  The carefully manicured parkland there now shows no sign of its former life.

	This is not the Oakleigh Junction Brickworks but is about as close as possible to what it may have looked like.