The Tip Top Factory site, Edward Street, Brunswick East in the early 20th century

From 1900 today's Tip Top Apartment Complex was the site of W.H. Rocke & Co’s Australia Terracotta Works. The factory, owned by a well-known Collins Street furniture dealership, provided roofing tiles for many of Melbourne's buildings, including the new Outpatients building of the Children's Hospital in Drummond Street, Carlton in 1898.

W.H. Rocke & Co had factories in Carlton and Brunswick (in Edward Street) where they made different sorts of ornamental and sheet zinc (for covering walls and roofs), also embossed patterns of steel and zinc, to be used instead of plaster. They also made articles in zinc, steel and terracotta - but not roofing tiles, which were imported from Marseilles.

The terracotta works' manager was Matthew Wilson Kemp who lived right next door to the factory at what was then 264 Edward Street. (He later moved further down the street.)

In 1907, W.H. Rocke & Co was bought out by a Sydney company - the Wunderlich Terracotta Manufacturers whose main premises were at Vermont. One of the Directors of Wunderlich was Theodore Fink, brother of Benjamin J. Fink, who was involved with W.H. Rocke & Co. The manager of the Brunswick works was Frederick Liebentritt, who lived nearby in Brunswick Road. Liebentritt, originally from Sydney, was an interesting character who returned to Sydney in the 1920s where he died in mysterious circumstances. His family remained in Brunswick.

In December 1908, shortly after Wunderlich took over, Brunswick Council approved the erection of a factory on the site. The company prospered, adding to its buildings in 1916. 

It was not without its detractors, however. There were complaints about the noise and about the nuisance of the smoke from the huge towers that rose above the factory buildings.

Brunswick and Coburg Star , 26 September 1916

Looking across Edward Street, Brunswick towards brick wall and buildings of the Wunderlich Terracotta Tile Works. Smoke stacks rise behind the buildings, 19 February 1927. 1920s International truck with 'Wunderlich Roofing' on side carrying roofing tiles at the front.  Image H2010.63/5. Courtesy State Library of Victoria.

Detail of the Wunderlich delivery truck, 19 February 1927. Image H2010.63/5. Courtesy State Library of Victoria.

Photograph of Wunderlich Limited's tile factory in Brunswick, c1927, Museum of Applied Arts & Sciences, accessed 17 February 2018, https://ma.as/392916.

Photograph of a brick chimney stack being demolished at Wunderlich Limited's tile factory in Brunswick c1927, Museum of Applied Arts & Sciences, accessed 17 February 2018, https://ma.as/392917

By the mid-1930s the clay needed to make the terracotta tiles had run out and Wunderlich closed its Brunswick operations. Then in 1938 H.L. Brisbane & Co took over Wunderlich and Australia's largest manufacturer of terracotta roofing tiles ceased to exist.

By the end of the 1930s the site had transformed into a bread factory but more of this later.


Sources:

Les Barnes, Street Names of Brunswick
Victorian Birth, Death and Marriage indexes
Victorian electoral rolls (accessed via Ancestry)
Sands and McDougall Street Directories
Powerhouse Museum of Applied Arts & Sciences Sydney picture collection
State Library of Victoria picture collection.
Leader, 23 April 1898
Age, 30 April 1900
Age 6 Sep 1900
Australasian, 6 Sep 1902
Age, 6 June 1903 
Age, 16 March 1906
Punch, 11 July 1907

Herald, 4 April 1908
Argus, 16 November 1908 
Coburg Leader, 19 December 1908
Coburg Leader, 1 July 1910
Brunswick and Coburg Star, 26 September 1915
Brunswick and Coburg Leader, 2 June 1916
Argus, 23 Sep 1938