Midland Brick supplies

building A building, or edifice, is an enclosed structure with a roof and walls standing more or less permanently in one place, such as a house or factory (although there's also portable buildings). Buildings come in a variety of sizes, shapes, and funct ...

and

construction Construction is a general term meaning the art and science to form objects, systems, or organizations,"Construction" def. 1.a. 1.b. and 1.c. ''Oxford English Dictionary'' Second Edition on CD-ROM (v. 4.0) Oxford University Press 2009 and ...

materials including bricks, concrete blocks, pavers,

retaining wall Retaining walls are relatively rigid walls used for supporting soil laterally so that it can be retained at different levels on the two sides. Retaining walls are structures designed to restrain soil to a slope that it would not naturally keep to ...

roof tiles Roof tiles are designed mainly to keep out rain, and are traditionally made from locally available materials such as terracotta or slate. Modern materials such as concrete, metal and plastic are also used and some clay tiles have a waterproof g ...

and

stone cladding In geology, rock (or stone) is any naturally occurring solid mass or aggregate of minerals or mineraloid matter. It is categorized by the minerals included, its chemical composition, and the way in which it is formed. Rocks form the Earth's ...

. Products are supplied to customers in Australia,

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 List of islands of New Zealand, smaller islands. It is the ...

and

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an ...

. Midland Brick headquarters are located in

Middle Swan, Western Australia Middle Swan is a suburb of Perth, Western Australia, and forms part of the City of Swan local government area. The suburb is bordered to the west by the Swan River. The suburb is most notable for its various wineries, including Nikola Estate tha ...

History

In 1946 Charles New, who was called Ric, and his brother Gerald, who was called Gerry, set up a brickyard in Middle Swan, Western Australia with £200 borrowed from their mother, to address the severe shortage of building supplies—especially bricks—after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. Ric collected clay from the

Darling Range The Darling Scarp, also referred to as the Darling Range or Darling Ranges, is a low escarpment running north–south to the east of the Swan Coastal Plain and Perth, Western Australia. The escarpment extends generally north of Bindoon, to th ...

and experimented making bricks in his oven at home. Subsequently, in 1947, using second hand bricks, the brothers built their first square updraft

kiln A kiln is a thermally insulated chamber, a type of oven, that produces temperatures sufficient to complete some process, such as hardening, drying, or chemical changes. Kilns have been used for millennia to turn objects made from clay int ...

and, using war-surplus materials and equipment, made their own machinery. In 1949 Ric established Western Australia's first brick laying school and, in that year, and throughout the 1950s Midland Brick constructed more kilns and created new types of bricks. In 1953 the brothers established Midland Brick Co. Pty Ltd. Ten years later, following a trip to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

, they began to plan and build a new and more efficient tunnel kiln. In 1972 Midland Brick developed and introduced the first commercial pavers into Western Australia. The first of these were used in the construction of the Perth Concert Hall and are still in place today. The firm was said to have promoted the Perth tradition of building double-brick homes. By the end of the 1970s Midland was making 83 types of bricks. Around this time production costs were significantly reduced due to mechanisation and innovation, and fuel costs were specifically reduced by the use of natural gas, delivered by the new Dongara to

Perth Perth is the list of Australian capital cities, capital and largest city of the Australian states and territories of Australia, state of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth most populous city in Aust ...

gas pipeline. In 1985 Midland Brick acquired

Whitemans Brick Whitemans Brick was a brick manufacturing company in Middle Swan in Western Australia. It was a company owned by Lou Whiteman, after whom Whiteman Park is named. The land on which the operations were located were expanded in the 1920s. It was ...

. The nine kilns that came with the acquisition made the firm the world's largest brick producer on one site, which was recognised in the 1996 edition of the

Guinness Book of Records ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a reference book published annually, listing world ...

. By 1989 Midland Brick employed 850 people, had sales of $100 million annually and produced nearly a million bricks a day, supplying about 80 per cent of the Western Australian market and exporting a proportion. After Ric died in 1989, Gerry sold Midland Brick to

Boral Boral Limited is Australia's largest building and construction materials supplier, with market-leading positions in quarries, cement, concrete and asphalt. Boral is actively pursuing a decarbonisation strategy through recycling of demolition ma ...

in 1990. By the late 1990s Midland Brick was the world's largest exporter of clay bricks and pavers to Japan and

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

and one of the world's biggest brick and paver exporters overall. In 2006 the firm commissioned Kiln 11, a high-tech robotic kiln which can produce up to 50 million bricks each year. The kiln is more environmentally friendly, using less gas with fewer emissions and less waste and able to produce a greater range of bricks. In the same year the company had to deal with issues relating to pollution. In August 2019, Boral agreed terms to sell Midland Brick to the

Buckeridge Group of Companies Buckeridge Group of Companies, commonly known as BGC, is a private corporate group of construction and building-related companies operating primarily in Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Austral ...

(BGC). On 1 September 2021, the Brikmakers brand owned by BGC was retired after operations were integrated into the single Midland Brick brand.

References

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External links

Midland Brick
Building materials companies of Australia Companies based in Western Australia Australian brands Manufacturing companies established in 1946 Middle Swan, Western Australia Brick manufacturers Brickworks in Australia Australian companies established in 1946