Ron Ringer, The Brickmasters, 1788-2008.
Shields, John
Ron Ringer, The Brickmasters, 1788-2008, Dry Press Publishing,
Horsley Park, 2008. pp. xiv + 433. $75 cloth (boxed).
Commissioned by Austral Bricks to mark the firm's centenary,
this substantial, superbly illustrated, elegantly written and handsomely
presented book provides a detailed narrative history of brick
manufacture in Sydney from the first weeks of European occupation.
Written in a manner that is bound to appeal to a multiple readership,
Ron Ringer's study documents and explores the impact of social,
economic, technological and architectural change on this foundational
yet hitherto little examined industry. Likewise, the study details for
the first time the remarkable contribution of the colourful entrepreneur
William King Dawes, Sydney's 'King of Bricks', to the
city's twentieth century business, labour, social and architectural
history. Ringer crafts his story with precision and care and in a manner
that attests to both his own research skills and his passion for the
skills of brickmaking and ornamental bricklaying. In a very real sense,
this is also the story of Sydney's endangered architectural
heritage and of the forgotten men, women and children by whom that
heritage was (quite literally) built. For such reasons, this is a book
which will, I believe, have strong appeal to readers of Labour History.
The book's 20 chapters take the reader through 220 years of
continuity and change in the business of brick manufacture. The
Australian story commences with the discovery of workable clay at Cockle
Creek on what is now Darling Harbour, in 1788, and the labour of the
convict brickmakers of Brickfield Hill. The narrative then turns to the
industry's transformation from hand production to mass production
of dry press bricks as mechanisation and urbanisation gathered pace
during the nineteenth century. However, the story told here is anything
but triumphal, with close attention paid to the human cost of the
pursuit of productivity and profit, including skill fragmentation,
occupational hazards and the exploitation of child workers. Keyed into
this story of socio-economic, technological, labour process change is an
enthralling tale of business history--the history of the city's
colonial brickmasters and of the Austral Brick Company Limited
(established in 1908) and its successor, Brickworks Limited (established
in 1934). These emblematic Australian firms where for over 50 years
guided by the entrepreneurial energy of William King Dawes, without
whose leadership Austral may well have succumbed to the economic
maelstrom of the early 1930s. Subsequent chapters address the influence
of Dawes' successors in taking the Austral brand to new heights.
As the Ringer's treatment demonstrates, brick shaped
Sydney's colonial and postcolonial urban landscape while the clay
and shale from which it was made and the coal by which it was fired were
emblematic of the Sydney basin's ancient past. And if, until now,
you have not quite been able to bring yourself to accept that
bricklayer's craft can produce objects of great beauty, the images
in this book will make you a certain convert. However, this is much more
than a mere coffee table text. It is a work of fine scholarship, clear
historical insight into the business of brickmaking and obvious empathy
for workers whose labour 'built this city'.
JOHN SHIELDS
University of Sydney
