Collie's Industrial Heritage Beyond Coal

When Forest Explorers leads our three-hour Premium Taphouse Tours through Collie, Western Australia, visiting beloved stops like the Collie Providore, Crown Hotel, and the Vic Hotel, we're walking through more than just a country town. We're traversing layers of industrial history that shaped this community in ways many visitors never realise.

Everyone knows Collie's story as a Coal Town. But dig a little deeper—literally—and you'll discover that the 'clay' beneath our feet once fueled an entirely different industry.

Alison from Forest Explorers celebrating the legacy of the Crown Hotel's historic brickwork, a testament to early 20th century craftsmanship and the rich heritage. Photo by Russell Ord

The Clay Beneath Our Feet

In March 1926, a group of enterprising locals registered the Collie Brick, Tile and Pottery Company, Ltd at Municipal Buildings on Throssell Street. William Hollingsworth, Clifford Benjamin Gibson, and Hyrum Whiteaker saw opportunity in Collie's rich clay deposits.

Their vision, as documented in Trove's historical records, was ambitious: to manufacture and deal in cement, lime, plasters, clay, gravel, sand, minerals, artificial stone, bricks, pottery, and tiles. They planned to operate as builders, quarry owners, general contractors, carriers, and truck owners—essentially providing the building blocks for an expanding settlement.

Floral tiles featuring red tulips, showcasing classic architectural details.

Building Collie, Brick by Brick

While coal miners worked underground and timber cutters rang their axes through the Jarrah forests, the Collie Brick, Tile and Pottery Co. was shaping the very buildings that housed them. The company represented Collie's diversification—a recognition that a thriving town needed more than extractive industries. It needed infrastructure, homes, and the materials to build a permanent community.

The historic buildings we enter and pass on our Forest Explorers Taphouse tours—including the Crown Hotel and Vic Hotel—stand as testament to this era of construction.

Rediscovering Our Layers

The Collie Providore showcases our region's agricultural bounty, while the Taphouse scene celebrates craft beverages in historic settings. But as we enjoy these modern pleasures, it's worth remembering the layers of industry beneath our feet.

The Collie Brick, Tile and Pottery Company may be nearly a century in the past, but their work—quite literally—helped build the foundation of the town we're exploring today. Next time you're admiring a heritage building's brickwork, consider that you might be looking at a piece of Collie clay, fired and laid by hands that believed in this town's future.

That's the beauty of Collie: we're not just a Coal and timber town. We're a place-built layer by layer, industry by industry, story by story.

Join Forest Explorers for a Taphouse Tour exploring Collie's historic hotels, local businesses and street scape celebrating our artistic heritage - Discover the stories.

A beautifully preserved historic red-brick church stands on a street corner, showcasing its Gothic architecture.