bricks - building canberra

This is pretty cool...

Canberra brickworks 1913 - 1976

When researching the early history of construction materials within the Australian Capital Territory (Canberra) it was necessary to look at the census counts prior to 1947.  What these reports showed was that dwellings people lived in were quite varied in the materials they chose.  But the one I want to quickly talk about here is bricks.  Why bricks?  Because after 1921 the census counts show an enormous boom in brick dwellings!  What does this look like?

1911         30 dwellings ( 7% of all dwellings)
1921         33 dwellings ( 9% of all dwellings)
1933       851 dwellings (47% of all dwellings)
1947    2,123 dwellings (64% of all dwellings)

That is huge growth!  Between 1921 and 1933 the number of brick dwellings in Canberra grew twenty five times and then more than doubled again by the end of WWII.

But why?

Was it because people suddenly like bricks?  Were they more affordable?  What was the reason.

Long story short, I knew Canberra had its own brickworks.  The 46m tall chimney is really easy to see down by Lake Burley Griffin.  So after a bit of research this is what was discovered.

The brickworks was opened in 1913 after the land holder had the year before permitted 38 acres of his property to be used as a site for a quarry and kilns.  However, the site did not start producing bricks, roof tiles and terracotta pipes for sale until 1916.  And due to labour shortages during WWI it closed until 1921.   

Some of the bricks went to building houses for the workers but most of the output was for public buildings; four million ‘Canberra red’ bricks went into the construction of Parliament House. 

And there it is.  Only 30 or so brick buildings before 1921 according to the census data.  Then a permanent brick making facility opens and the number of brick dwellings people live in booms.  The fact that this growth was so immediate indicates that if it had have been open earlier, the boom would have started sooner, suggesting bricks was a preferred construction material if you can get your hands on them.

The brickworks finally closed in 1976.

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