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2016 Census QuickStats: Brunswick (Vic.)

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In the 2016 Census, there were 24,473 people in Brunswick (Vic.) (State Suburbs). Of these 48.8% were male and 51.2% were female. Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander people made up 0.5% of the population.

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Moreland Council Website

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The Woi wurrung people occupied 12,000 square kilometres in Victoria and it is estimated there were about 1700 of Woi wurrung people in the years before white settlement divided into four clans (land-owning groups).

The Woi wurrung people

For most of the year, the Woi wurrung lived in groups of between 20 and 50 people. They assembled as a clan or larger group only a few times a year to have celebrations or conduct business. Food resources did not allow large gatherings too often or for too long. During the rest of the year the groups moved around their own territory looking for food. In summer they went to the coast and river flats. In winter, they sheltered in the hills from the wind and rain.

Heads of families carefully planned group moves according to the season. Each day was a food quest: hunting kangaroos, emus and possums, catching fish and eels and gathering edible plants. On good days when there was plenty of food, groups spent about four hours collecting and preparing food. The rest of the day was spent talking, sleeping and story telling. Aborigines were not farmers - they had no need to be. There was plenty of food to be hunted or gathered.

The Woi wurrung had a religious relationship to their land, participating in corroborees and sacred ceremonies on Merri Creek. They played games too - wrestling, throwing boomerangs and playing 'Mamgrook'. Two sides played this ball game. A round ball made of rolled possum skin tied up with kangaroo sinew was kicked high in the air.

Meeting places for the Woi wurrung

Merri Creek was a meeting place for the Woi wurrung and three other cultural language groups. There was enough food for up to a thousand people for several weeks. The meetings were for social contact, ceremonies, marriage, deciding issues in tribal law and trading axe heads, reed spears and possum skin cloaks.

Settlement and the Woi wurrung

The settlement of the area around Melbourne in the 1830s was a disaster for the Woi wurrung. The Aborigines died from western diseases - small pox, fever, ulcers, syphilis and dysentery. The growth of the white population and building of houses and towns meant that bird and animal life moved north because the land was taken over by sheep and cattle. Sheep ate the plants and trampled food and water resources. Lack of food, accidents, alcohol and violent incidents with white people killed many. Fewer babies were born because Woi wurrung were so fearful - their country was theirs no longer.

William Thomas was appointed Protector of Aborigines for Melbourne and Western Port in 1839. His job was to protect, help and support Aborigines. Thomas provided the first detailed census of the Woi wurrung in November 1839. The total number in 1839 was 209. By 1853 there were no children and only 55 adults, and in 1858 only 33 remained.

In 1859 Thomas accompanied seven Aboriginal men to a meeting with the Minister for lands. They wanted land near the Goulburn River to settle and grow crops. The government agreed to this but was slow to act so the Aborigines settled themselves at Coranderrk near Healesville.

The present day

The 2016 Census for Moreland (C) (Local Government Areas) shows that there were 813 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people which is 0.5% of the population in Moreland. Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander people made up 0.8% of the population in Victoria and 2.8% of the population in Australia.

The median age of Moreland's Indigenous people was 28 years which is significantly younger than the non-indigenous population median age which was 35. In Moreland 6.8% of Indigenous people live with a severe or profound disability.

Between 2006 and 2016 the following social trends indicate significant changes in some areas. In 2006 over 45% of 20-24 year-old Indigenous people left school before completing year 11 and by 2016 this decreased to just over 13%. In the same period the percentage of Indigenous people aged 25 to 44 years who hold a degree or higher qualification increased from 16% in 2006 to over 35% in 2016. The percentage of 15 to 24 year olds who had given birth decreased from 17% in 2006 to 0% in 2016.

For more statistical data for Victorian communities inclusive of Indigenous residents visit the City of Greater Dandenong and the Victorian Local Government Association (VLGA) social statistics website.

Further information

For more detail on the indigenous history of Moreland, read the Moreland Pre-Contact and Post-Contact Aboriginal Heritage Studies, which include historical information on the Woi wurrung.

The Moreland Pre-Contact Aboriginal Heritage Study also lists and describes archeaological surveys carried out in and around Moreland and looks at the effect of urban development on Moreland's Aboriginal archaeological sites.

For more information about Aboriginal languages, see Victorian Aboriginal Corporation for Languages.

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The Woi wurrung people occupied 12,000 square kilometres in Victoria and it is estimated there were about 1700 of Woi wurrung people in the years before white settlement divided into four clans (land-owning groups). For most of the year, the Woi wurrung lived in groups of between 20 and 50 people.

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Moreland Council Website

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The area that surveyor Robert Hoddle marked out, destined to be Brunswick, was determined by two straight lines (which later became Park Street and Moreland Road), drawn from Moonee Ponds to Merri Creek.

Halfway between the creek a line north to south was marked which at first was known as Pentridge Road and was later named Sydney Road in 1859. The area was then divided into farms, eleven on each side of the road running back to the creeks with all but two being ten chains wide.

Land sales in Brunswick

The first land sales were in 1839 and 1840, most being bought by speculators/investors who did not come to live there. Daniel Campbell's land portions were sold on to Edward Stone Parker and Thomas Wilkinson in 1840. They named their property Brunswick, probably in honour of the royal wedding that had occurred 'back home' in England Brunswick was the name of the royal house of the bride, Princess Caroline. The two tracks to their property were for the same reason called Victoria and Albert (Queen Victoria's new husband) Streets. Wilkinson was very active in local affairs and came to be known as the 'Father of Brunswick'.

He donated the land in Sydney Road where the Wesleyan Church was built (now Sydney Road Community School). Wilkinson built himself a small house on the corner of Sydney Road and Albert Street. Church services were held at his home until the church was built, and from 1846 his house served as a post office. Wilkinson built shops for sale or lease along Sydney Road. He was elected first chairman of the Council when it was formed in 1857 (the first Council meeting was held in the Cornish Arms Hotel and there were seven councillors). No wonder Wilkinson's name for his property was adopted for the entire area.

A growing settlement

From the 1840s the settlement started to grow. The Retreat Inn, Brunswick's oldest hotel opened in 1846, and provided a popular stopping place for travellers. However it was still an isolated rural community with a dirt track for a main road, until everything changed with the discovery of gold. Gold was discovered in Victoria in 1851 and the quickest way to the fields in Ballarat and Bendigo was through Brunswick. A camp was set up opposite the Methodist Church where people on the way to the fields could rest and organise themselves for their journey. Next to the church was a 'Rag fair' where clothes and goldfield equipment were sold. More shops and hotels opened, including the Brunswick Hotel in 1852 and the Edinburgh Castle and the Sarah Sands both in 1854. Gold fever caused a rush of settlers to Australia. The settlers needed houses once they had tried their luck on the fields, and suitable clay had been discovered in Brunswick by John Glew in 1849.

Bluestone quarries

The natural deposits of clay for bricks and bluestone for houses and roads meant Brunswick's quarrying industry was born. The Cornwell works began in 1861 and John Barry and Jenkin Collier launched the Hoffman brickyard in 1863, which eventually employed 800 people. By 1865, most of the population of 3000 was involved in brickmaking and bluestone 'dressing'.

School and libraries

The first schools in the area were run by individuals in private homes. The Methodists opened a school in 1849 that combined with a Presbyterian one to become Central Brunswick State School 1213 in 1877. A Catholic school began in a back room at the Brunswick Hotel in 1860. This became St Ambrose Primary School. The Mechanics Institute opened in 1868. It provided library books, but a fee had to be paid. A free service for residents did not start until 1926. The library moved to the town hall facing Sydney Road in 1976, then to its present location in the large hall in Dawson Street in 1992. The Campbell Turnbull library in Melville Road opened in 1982.

The town of Brunswick

In 1884 the railway line came to Brunswick, and the first cable tram in 1887. (In 1916 electric trams began in Lygon Street and replaced horse drawn buses.) In April 1888 Brunswick was proclaimed a Town with a population of 14,792. By 1891 there were as well as the brickworks, nail and rope factories, two banks, three schools, two newspapers, five railway stations, a Mechanics Institute and three fire brigades! Electricity supply began in 1914.

First World War to the present day

After the First World War new industries developed creating more employment, hosiery and textile companies such as Prestige, Holeproof and Peerless. By 1928 the population had reached 55,799. Brunswick Town Hall held the best dances in the north, and there were many theatres showing films. The 1930s saw the decline of the brick and clay industries as much of the clay and bluestone had been used up. Many of the quarries were filled in and became parks and reserves. Migration from European countries after the Second World War saw thousands of people come first from Italy, then Greece, Turkey, Lebanon and other countries.

Links

References

Brunswick: one history, many voices by Helen Penrose (editor)

It happened in Brunswick: 1837 - 1987 by Les Barnes

Fusion: the newsletter of the Brunswick Community History Group

Images

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The area that surveyor Robert Hoddle marked out, destined to be Brunswick, was determined by two straight lines (which later became Park Street and Moreland Road), drawn from Moonee Ponds to Merri Creek. Halfway between the creek a line north to south was marked which at first was known as Pentridge Road and was later named Sydney Road in 1859.

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History of Brunswick Resources

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To be handed out with the article

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Source for Group Inquiry

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A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE HOFFMAN BRICKWORKS

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Prompt for lesson 4

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At Siteworks

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BLAK DOT GALLERY | Contemporary Indigenous Arts

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BLAK DOT GALLERY is a contemporary Indigenous run Arts Space that will showcase artworks of world Indigenous cultures. Our primary focus will be to highlight the diversity of our artists and new mediums.

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Resident Community of Siteworks

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Established in 2016 by Millie Cattlin and Joseph Norster, managers and co-creative directors or Siteworks, The Lab is intended to be a method for collaborating with council and providing benefit to the community in alternative ways, whilst utilising space within the house at 33 Saxon Street through an exchange model.

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Modern Apartement Walk Through

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In 1863 the Hoffmans Brickworks was the largest brickworks in Brunswick. Now this unique, colourful and cosmopolitan project incorporates all of the heritage atmosphere with mews-style residences, warehouse-style apartments with lofty ceilings and exposed beams, underground parking and three storey townhouses.

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Albert Street Cafe

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Designing a Floorplan on Excel Tutorial II

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Designing a Floorplan on Excel Tutorial II

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How to Make a Floorplan in Excel : Microsoft Excel Tips

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Resources for Group Activity on Significant Spaces in Brunswick

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Resources for Group Activity on Significant Spaces in Brunswick

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Colour Coded