Heritage site marker for the Thomas Allen Briggs lime kiln

Adjacent to this site was the earliest lime kiln in the area. It produced dray loads of lime and charcoal which were important to Perth's building and agricultural industries. 

The land T J Briggs selected was north of the original Balcatta Road where it took a conspicuous dog leg around the northern end of Careniup Swamp. It is this kiln that is now known as Briggs’ Kiln Carine. The land was part of Swan Location K, owned by George Walpole Leake, a Perth barrister who had bought the land from the original owner Robert Ansell Partridge in 1868. After Briggs abandoned the kilns in 1875, there is no documentary evidence to indicate that the kilns were then utilised by Leake or the subsequent owner, Bernard Duffy, who bought the land in 1886.

The construction and operation of Briggs’ Kiln Carine by a 15 year old Thomas Briggs demonstrates the self-reliant lifestyle of British settlers in the colonial period.  As an example of a small commercial lime burning enterprise, Briggs’ Kiln Carine demonstrates the development of Western Australia’s building industry from 1850-1900, before the shift to larger grouped kilns. Briggs’ Kiln Carine was the first kiln built by Thomas James Briggs, who went on to become a successful figure in the state’s lime and limestone industry as well as becoming Mayor of Claremont.