Summary

Registered in Victoria in 1885, the company joined with six other brewers in 1907 to form Carlton United Breweries Ltd.

Details

Edward Fitzgerald, from Galway, Ireland, started a brewery in Castlemaine Victoria in 1857; he was joined by his brother Nicholas in 1859. In 1871 the name The Castlemaine Brewery was adopted. The brewery moved to Melbourne to cope with the demand for its product. Castlemaine Brewery Co (Melbourne) Ltd was registered in Melbourne on February 26, 1885.
The brothers went on to establish breweries in Sydney, Brisbane, Newcastle, Daylesford and Newbridge. The various Castlemaine companies split and went their own way. Nicholas formed the South Melbourne Brewery with J. B. Perrins. Fitzgerald and Perrin sold out in 1885 to form a public company, with Perrin as the first managing director.
In August 1903 the Society of Melbourne Brewers was formed of which Castlemaine Brewery Co (Melbourne) Ltd, was a member. The society help fix the price of beer. In April 1906, to make themselves more competitive, it was announced that the members of the Society of Melbourne Brewers: Carlton Brewery Ltd, McCracken's City Brewery Ltd, Castlemaine Brewery Co (Melbourne) Ltd, Shamrock Brewing and Malting Co. Ltd, The Foster Brewing Co. Pty Ltd and the Victoria Brewery Pty Ltd, would amalgamate into one company.
The new company Carlton & United Breweries was registered on 8 May 1907 and all the parties signed the agreement on 30 June 1907. Nicholas Fitzgerald, as the representative from Castlemaine Brewery Co (Melbourne) Ltd was one of the directors on the new board. Castlemaine received 1/8 of the shares distributed for the new company. After the amalgamation Carlton & United was to make the beer, while the other companies were to be brewers in name only; they became holding companies for CUB shares.
Castlemaine Brewery Co (Melbourne) Ltd, continued to be a holding company until March 3 1973, when in a restructure of the capital structure of the Carlton United Breweries Ltd. group, shareholders in Castlemaine were reissued with Carlton United Brewery shares.

Related entries

Timeline

 1885 - 1959? Castlemaine Brewery Company Limited, Melbourne
       1907 - Carlton and United Breweries Limited

Archival resources

Newcastle Public Library

• Castlemaine Brewery Company Limited, Melbourne records, 1871 - 1944; Newcastle Public Library. Details

Noel Butlin Archives Centre, Australian National University, (formerly Archives of Business and Labour)

• Castlemaine Brewery records, 1899 - 1922; Noel Butlin Archives Centre, Australian National University, (formerly Archives of Business and Labour). Details

Published resources

Books

• Deutsher, Keith M., The breweries of Australia. A history., Includes brief histories of Australian brewing companies., Thomas C. Lothian Pty Ltd, Melbourne, Victoria, 1999, 374 pp. Details