Historical information

Ernest, Alfred, and Otto Wunderlich founded the Wunderlich company in Sydney in 1885. The company expanded into Melbourne with a showroom located in Queen Street, Melbourne.

The North Sunshine factory on McIntyre Road opened in 1927 producing glazed terracotta tiles, faience cladding, and later asbestos‑based products including Durabestos sheets and pipes.

In 1969, CSR purchased Wunderlich.

In 1977 CSR sold the Sunshine site to James Hardie.

The factory closed down in 1983. The site was then redeveloped into the Westend Market Hotel and Dan Murphy’s.

In the mid‑2010s, a cluster of mesothelioma cases among North Sunshine residents was linked to historical asbestos exposure from the factory.

Significance

The Sunshine Wunderlich factory was one of Melbourne’s major interwar industrial employers. It contributed to Sunshine’s identity as a manufacturing hub alongside the H.V. McKay / Massey Ferguson Sunshine Harvester Works.

This small book records only a very small number of employees who worked at the factory. The list was put together by former Wunderlich employee Walter "Wally" O'Brien.

Physical description

Light green exercise book

Inscriptions & markings

Front - T/Cotta Wunderlich Staff
1st Page Don Forte, Silvio, Tich Johnon, Sebastian Granata, Fred Willaton, Jack Lewis, George Griggs (Greigs), Ben George Simon, Whisky (Not Wally), Priot Albert Willaton (Son of Fred), Albert Elllingson (Killed on train disaster is his Grand Father)