The former
Bank of New South Wales building was built in Gill Street, Charters Towers in 1889, replacing a number of earlier timber bank buildings on other sites in both Charters Towers and nearby
Millchester. This two-storey masonry building addressing Gill Street also has a number of additions to the rear which demonstrate the evolution of the banking industry in the town over time. It complements other significant bank buildings in nearby Mosman Street, including the former
Australian Bank of Commerce, now The World Theatre, and the former Queensland National Bank building which later served as the City Hall. Charters Towers'
gold was first discovered in December 1871, by an Aboriginal boy named
Jupiter who tended the horses for prospectors
Hugh Mosman,
George Clarke and John Fraser. A storm frightened the horses into a gap in the hills, and while retrieving them, Jupiter found a rich vein of gold laden quartz. Mosman travelled to
Ravenswood in early January 1872 to register the claim which he named Charters Towers, honouring the Gold Commissioner for the
Broughton gold fields. By March 1872, Commissioner Charters had issued 25 prospecting area permits in the vicinity of Mosman's claim, and the rush began. The earliest settlement grew around diggings at the confluence of Buchanan's Gully and Gladstone Creek and was known as Millchester. About north-west of Millchester, another settlement evolved which became Charters Towers. It included a number of stores, hotels and a butcher shop along a track that was to become Mosman Street. The population of Charters Towers was reputedly 3000 by August 1872. There was rivalry between the two settlements, particularly after the courthouse was erected at Millchester in 1873. In the meantime, it had become evident that the procurement of gold from the deep seams of Charter Towers required substantial machinery to crush quartz and sink shafts. This required working capital to finance machinery and to pay the wages of workers employed on these time-consuming processes. The Queensland Gold Fields Act 1874 and Gold Mining Companies Act 1875 allowed for combinations of leases, claims and syndicates in order to work their leases at great depths. The legislation also underpinned the establishment of permanent settlement which would attract capital investment to the field. The influx of money and the resultant yield of gold were reflected in the growth of the township and the establishment of banks, mining companies and mining agencies and exchanges. Two banking companies, the
Australian Joint Stock Bank and the Bank of New South Wales established offices on the goldfields by July 1872, only six months after the registration of the first claims. The Bank of New South Wales was the first bank established in Australia (February 1817) but it was restricted to trading in
Sydney until 1850. After restructuring, it opened its first branch outside Sydney, in
Brisbane, on 14 November 1850, also being the first bank established in Queensland. It continued to expand rapidly with the rush of gold discoveries in
New South Wales and
Victoria. The bank set up agencies and gold-buying agents at every new mining venture in order to spread its network and consolidate its position. Bank officers were urged on by their superiors to be the first to a new location to set up a gold-buying agency. By 1861 the Bank of NSW had grown from a single Sydney office to a network of 37 branches in Australia and New Zealand. The expansion of the Bank of NSW into
North Queensland was driven by
Robert Towns, one of its directors. Bank establishment followed both pastoral development and mineral discoveries.
Port Denison, established to serve pastoralists, became the
municipality of Bowen in 1863. By 1864 there was Bowen branch of the Bank of NSW, followed by one in
Townsville in March 1866, where Towns and his partner
John Melton Black had established a
boiling down works. Another branch opened on the
Ravenswood goldfields in 1870, one at
Cardwell, (the terminus for the gold escort) in 1871 and in Charters Towers and
Georgetown in 1872. The
Cooktown branch, servicing the
Palmer River fields opened in 1876, then
Thornborough in 1877 on the
Hodgkinson goldfields, followed by
Cairns and
Port Douglas. The Charters Towers Bank of NSW had opened only two days after the Australian Joint Stock Bank, which had opened on 2 July 1872. Then in October 1872, both banks relocated to nearby Millchester. In Millchester, land on the northern corner of Jardine and Macdonald Streets was formally transferred to the Bank of NSW in April 1875, but the actual sale is likely to have occurred prior to the title documentation. The Joint Stock Bank owned land opposite in Macdonald Street, and the Queensland National Bank opened in 1873 adjacent. Then in July 1874, a cottage was reported to have been relocated to Mosman Street, Charters Towers, to be used as an agency of the Bank of NSW. Presumably the main branch remained in Millchester. At the time Charters Towers was described as: "solidifying rapidly and is giving undeniable proof that it means to stand. New shops and stores are going up. Buildings are being renovated and painted..." Charters Towers soon dominated. A town survey was undertaken in November 1874, and marked out allotments in a "T" formation, with the mines and provision stores of Mosman Street on one axis, and the road to Millchester marked by Gill Street on the other. In January 1876, the Bank of NSW was relocated to Charters Towers, with Millchester becoming the agency office. This relocation was touted by the
Northern Miner newspaper, as "the beginning of the end" for Millchester. Charters Towers was declared a
municipality in 1877 encompassing centred on Mosman Street. It included new churches, the
Oddfellows and
Good Templar Lodges, and 21 hotels and 57 shops. The Bank of NSW moved into new premises in March 1877, described as a five roomed banking house, bringing solidarity to the top end of Mosman Street. The wealth of the Charters Towers goldfields grew in the following years, particularly following the 1886
Colonial and Indian Exhibition in London where specimens of Charters Towers Gold were featured. Almost immediately English investors seized the opportunity to be part of the Charters Towers gold riches. Mining companies were formed, managed by Charters Towers' mining agents and share-brokers, and while some shares were held by English interests, many local people prospered through their investments, which then led to an expansion of banking facilities and mining exchanges. Banks and gold buyers purchased the gold, minted it into sovereigns in Australia and England, which were held in the vaults of banks in
Melbourne, London, Berlin, and New York and then shipped to pay international debt. According to the Northern Miner newspaper, there were five banks in Gill Street in mid 1887: the Bank of NSW,
Bank of Australasia,
London Chartered Bank,
Union and
Royal Banks. The Queensland National Bank and the Australian Joint Stock Bank remained in Mosman Street. The Bank of NSW gradually improved banking facilities during the 1880s when many new branches opened in Queensland. Most directors were keen for bank premises in country towns to emphasise dignity, size and solidity in the design of their buildings demonstrating the bank's capacity to survive and consolidate. Consequently, well known architects were employed to design bank buildings in New South Wales, and throughout Australia and New Zealand. This was the case in Charters Towers. The Bank of NSW purchased an allotment in February 1887, diagonally opposite the post office in Gill Street, on which to erect a new substantial brick building. Architects Eyre and Munro called for tenders in the local newspaper in April 1888. The firm had offices in Townsville and Charters Towers. The Charters Towers office was run by William Henry Allan Munro, who had been previously employed in Townsville by architects and builders
Rooney Brothers. After winning a competition for the design of the Queensland Hotel, he was taken into partnership with Walter Morris Eyre. In 1887 he became the junior partner, managing the Charters Towers office. Eyre, brother-in-law of architect FDG Stanley, had managed Stanley's
Maryborough office between 1882 and 1885 before relocating to Townsville, where he supervised the construction of the
Bank of NSW building in Flinders Street. The Eyre and Munro partnership designed many north Queensland buildings including the 1889
Holy Trinity Church of England in
Herberton, the 1890
Bank of North Queensland in Cooktown, the 1890–1
Townsville School of Arts, and the 1892
Burns Philp Building, later part of
Bartlam's Store in Charters Towers (now Zara Clark Museum). They also designed the building on the corner of Deane and Gill Streets for auctioneers Ackers, Wilson, Ayton and Ryan, built in 1888 which later housed the
Royal Bank of Queensland. Construction of the new bank was by contractor Mr Kelleher under the supervision of Eyre and Munro. It opened for business on Monday 13 May 1889, and was described as "handsome and very pleasing, an imposing structure, superior to anything north of Brisbane" and overshadowing the adjacent Bank of Australasia (no longer extant). While the Northern Miner newspaper reported the cost at , the bank's archives indicated . The new building was seen as the way forward in both structure and location. The inclusion of a commodious manager's private apartment was usual for regional banks.On the ground floor the building comprised banking chamber, fitted handsomely in polished cedar, the upper part of the various partitions being in ornamental ground glass...ample room for the public in front of the counter for the transaction of business, and a table... placed there for the accommodation of those who may desire to fill in deposit slips, requisitions for drafts, &c; a counter...14 ft long by 4ft 6 in [4.2 x 1.4m] wide, with the bill department on the right, and the exchange clerks' office on the left; ledger desks...placed at the back of the counter. To the left of the main entrance to the public hall is the manager's room, ...and opening out of that is the accountant's office... which has a raised floor, so that the official, by simply standing up, can get a good view of all that is going on. There is a passage leading from the manager's room to the dining-room, which, with the exception of the kitchen and servants' offices is the only one of the private apartments on the ground floor. At the rear of the ledger-desks are the strong room (fireproof), a lavatory and a stationery-room. Leaving the dining-room, we come to the private hall, which is approached from the passage to the left of the building. The upper floor is reached by a staircase from this hall...and contains a handsome drawing room...communicating by folding doors with another large room...which will be used by Mr Beattie for his own bedroom. There are three other bedrooms and a dressing room, all of large dimensions, with linen closet and a bathroom. The upper part of the building has a balcony running around three sides...and the internal passages are all proportionately spacious. The servants' quarters on the ground floor comprise kitchen, pantry, wash-house and sleeping apartment, and are furnished with the usual appurtenances for cooking and washing. Stabling has yet to be erected. Gas is laid on in every room and provision is made: for the Burdekin water supply when that scheme is complete. In the meantime there are three 1000 gallon [45 litres] tanks all full. The chimney-pieces and other fittings are in cedar, and are in excellent taste. All the rooms are ceiled, with mouldings, &c., of elegant design, and ventilation and drainage have been specially attended to.'An economic downturn occurred in 1888, during the construction of the bank, due to a decrease in overseas investment and a continuing drought which led to the closure of crushing machines due to lack of water. The slump was short-lived after the development of the Brilliant Reef, which when mined to a depth of , became the biggest producer in the field. Charters Towers was at its economic peak in the late 19th century. According to Government Geologist
Robert Logan Jack, Charters Towers was the third largest gold producing area in Australia, after
Ballarat and Sandhurst (
Bendigo). Many new buildings were completed in this period in Charters Towers. The "T" junction of Mosman and Gill Streets became the financial district of Charters Towers. For one block to the east, north, and south were eight banks, the post and telegraph office, two assaying offices, and four solicitor's offices. Share-brokers occupied the
Royal Arcade, and other offices were located in Mosman and Bow Streets. The Royal Arcade was built in 1888 for Alexander Malcolm and by 1890 the Stock Exchange operated from the building. Other significant buildings of this era include the 1887–92
Masonic Lodge and the 1892
Post Office (
Commonwealth Heritage List 105523). Banks of this era include the 1881 (lowset timber) Bank of Australasia, the London Chartered Bank (which purchased the two-storey masonry building from local builder Hugh Ross in 1887), the former Australian Joint Stock Bank (later the Australian Bank of Commerce) and the Queensland National (QN) Bank, both designed by FDG Stanley and both built in 1891. The Union Bank then occupied the former QN Bank premises in Mosman Street. All of these buildings remain, apart from the Bank of Australasia. The Bank of NSW was considered the first financial institution to erect premises worthy of the town and the business conducted there.
The North Queensland Register claimed it was the largest banking institution in Australasia in the 1890s. The banking crisis of 1893, when the Queensland National Bank and the Australian Joint Stock Bank, both suspended trading, led to an increase in business for the Bank of NSW in Charters Towers, when successful mining companies transferred their accounts. At that time there were eight banking businesses operating in Charters Towers; the Australian Joint Stock Bank, Bank of Australasia, Bank of NSW, Bank of North Queensland, London Chartered Bank, Queensland National Bank, Royal Bank and the Union Bank, and all were still operating after the crisis had passed. In 1899, Charters Towers was the second most important city in Queensland with a population of over 26,000, and an internationally noted goldfield. The gold yield for the state rose dramatically following the development of the Brilliant Reef, and in 1891, rose from to . It reached its all-time peak of , yielding over by 1899. Gold production contributed between 21.61 and 35.53 percent of Queensland's export income during the 1880s and 1890s. These enormous amounts of gold were purchased by banks, which played a vital role in this process of wealth creation and distribution. Gold production had been the mainstay of the Queensland mining sector in the 1890s, amounting to 85 per cent to 92.8 per cent of mining production during the decade. Apart from a brief spike in production at
Mount Morgan in 1888–1889, Charters Towers consistently out-produced the other major gold mining areas of Ravenswood,
Gympie and Mount Morgan between 1880 and 1913. While Gympie peaked between 1901 and 1906, generally figures for all centres declined in the early 20th century. Charters Towers' production of in 1912, fell to in 1916 and was reduced to by 1919. Despite Charters Towers being declared a
city in 1909, the downturn in mining from 1914 and its virtual cessation by 1917 contributed to a steady decrease in population during this time. A town that had boasted a population of 25,000 in 1900, when it was the second largest in Queensland, was reduced to just 13,000 by the end of
World War I (WWI). Between 1914 and 1918 more than 900 homes and business premises were removed from Charters Towers. Many were dismantled and transported by train to Townsville or
Ayr where they were re-erected. Others were relocated to various places in
Western Queensland. Nevertheless, banking institutions remained in town to service the regional rural economy and included the Bank of NSW, Bank of Australasia, London Chartered Bank, Queensland National Bank, Union Bank and the Bank of Commerce in the early 1920s. The Bank of NSW took over the
Western Australian Bank in 1927, and then absorbed the Australian Bank of Commerce in 1931. The Bank of NSW occupied the building in Gill Street until 1970 and during this time a number of repairs and small modifications were made. Renovations were undertaken in 1910 included plastering, painting and general repairs, with further unidentified alterations occurring in 1921 and 1940. A post-1900 photograph of the rear of the bank shows rendering to the face-brick walls of the bank core and service wing; lattice panels fixed to the western
verandahs of the manager's apartment and service wing; horizontal battens on the wash house and stables and a lavatory in the far south- western corner. It is likely that the female toilets attached to the northern western corner of the bank were built during WWI when women were employed to make up for the shortfall of men. Following the 1931 merger with the Australian Bank of Commerce, the amalgamated business was carried on in the Bank of New South Wales premises in Gill Street. The former Bank of Commerce building (originally the Joint Stock Bank) was used as accommodation for bank officers. It was sold in 1937. The Charters Towers Bank of NSW played an important role in the
Pacific Campaign of
World War II, as the
New Guinean Bank of NSW branches in the towns of
Wau,
Samarai,
Rabaul and
Port Moresby were successively evacuated in January and early February 1942, due to bombing or threat of bombing. The transportable business effects including records, cash and bullion were taken by boat to Townsville, and a custodian branch was set up in Charters Towers, while the reconstruction of the business was undertaken in Brisbane. The
Charters Towers City Council acquired the Queensland National Bank building in 1949 and relocated its administrative operations there. The building was then known as the Charters Towers Town Hall. A library was established in the old town hall building. The
Charters Towers City Council acquired the former Bank of Commerce (AJS Bank) in 1992 and converted it into The World Theatre. In 1967 a property exchange was made with the Charters Towers City Council, whereby the Bank of NSW acquired the old town hall site owned by the council. The old timber Town Hall was demolished in August 1968. The bank continued to occupy its original building during the construction of a new building on this site, which opened on 16 March 1970. The Bank of NSW acquired the Victorian-based
Commercial Bank of Australia Ltd in 1982 and then changed its name to
Westpac, reflecting the Western Pacific region in which it now operated. From 1982, the former Bank of NSW building was used as the council library and child care centre. The property was formally transferred to the Council in 1984. The council erected women's toilets to the rear of the western side of the building sometime prior to 1980. During the 1980s a restaurant occupied the first floor of the building. In the 1990s it housed the offices of Skill West and Skill Share, as well as school support services provided by Education Queensland. The semi-detached building at the rear has undergone a number of renovations over time. The library was relocated in 2003 and the day care centre ceased operation. The former Bank of NSW building has had a number of tenants since that time including a real estate agent and a Bendigo Bank Agency. The Australian Association of Distance Education Schools utilised space on the first floor for training purposes in the 2000s, however it has been vacant since 2010. The building was renamed Wherry House in 2006 to honour a former mayor Paul Wherry and his wife Molly who served the city from 1952 to 1964. Plaques commemorating their community work were installed in the building in November 2006. == Description ==