Northcote Brickworks Railway Siding

The Northcote Brickworks grew from small beginnings to become one of the largest brickworks in Melbourne and one of the main reasons Northcote had grown to become 'a workingman's suburb' by 1889.

The fortunes of the brickworks followed the fortunes of the colony, most notably during the 1880s property boom. By February 1888 the brickworks had expanded to four kilns, but even this was not enough to supply the fortnight's orders for two and a half million bricks (up by one million bricks from a fortnight's orders in August 1887).

It was in the context of this boom that "the excited directors ordered a fifth kiln and new machinery. They bought land to run a railway siding along the north side of Langwill's Parade across High Street, curving south-west to meet the main line, and had the siding ready before the main line opened [October 1889?(ed)]" (Lemon, Andrew (1983), The Northcote Side of the River, p.106).

It is my understanding that horses rather than steam first pulled the wagons between the main line and the brickworks and this task was later taken over by tractors.

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