The site of the Brickpit Ring Walk is on the traditional lands of the Wann clan, known as the
Wann-gal. Physical evidence of the usage of the Homebush Bay area by Aboriginal people has been found in the form of stone artefacts located nearby. Aboriginal shell
middens (campsites where shellfish and other foods were consumed) were known to have lined
Homebush Bay and the
Parramatta River but were destroyed in the
limekilns in the eighteenth and nineteenth century and subsequent alterations to the shoreline.
State Brickworks Following a
NSW Government inquiry into the monopolistic control of brickyards by the Metropolitan Brick Company, in 1911 the NSW Minister for Public Works resumed of
Crown land from the adjacent State Abattoir for the
State Brickworks, and by 1925 the site comprised . There were difficulties in constructing the first kiln at the Brickworks, caused by the refusal of private manufacturers to sell their bricks for this purpose. Bricks made during the early years of the site were transported by barge to a depot in
Blackwattle Bay from where they were loaded for road transport to building sites. Trading operations of the
state-owned State Brickworks commenced on 1 November 1911 and the output for the first trading period was wholly absorbed on Government works. During the economic depression of the 1930s, the brickworks operated at a significant loss. In 1936, they were sold to private enterprise and closed in 1940. A train station for workers to use opened on the site in December 1939. After
World War II, the Government re-established the State Brickworks due to a shortage of bricks. Reformulated in 1946 as an agency within the
NSW Department of Public Works, two large pits were created to provide the clay to make the bricks as the State Brickworks grew to acquire 7 percent of the brick market in New South Wales. The State Brickworks acquired used by the State Timberworks at and built new facilities on this site. The first pit was closed and filled in during the 1960s. Drivers set off from the Big Chiefs (Beefy's) burger joint on Parramatta Road, racing up Underwood Road towards Brickies Hill. This circuit can be seen in the 1977 film
The FJ Holden. ==Brickpit Ring Walk==