Commonwealth Bank Building, Mackay, Heritage-listed commercial building in Mackay, Queensland, Australia.
The Commonwealth Bank Building at 63 Victoria Street is a two-storey brick building with a former residence on the upper floor and an extension attached on the east. Its front has a seven-bay colonnade of round columns on pedestals joined by a low wall; the central bay holds the entry in a projecting one-storey portal with a free-standing entablature enriched with classical triglyphs. Slender cast iron columns above the masonry ones support a corrugated iron veranda roof, with a balustrade of cast iron lace in overlapping circles. The stucco on both levels is ruled to resemble ashlar masonry, and a moulded chimney rises on the left.
Constructed in 1880 by architect Francis Drummond Greville Stanley for the Australian Joint Stock Bank, the building served various financial institutions including the Bank of New South Wales before becoming the Commonwealth Savings Bank in 1934.
The building opened on 5 February 1881 as the Mackay branch of the Australian Joint Stock Bank, a bank founded in 1852 on the southern goldfields and spread to Queensland diggings from Broughton on 23 April 1872. It became the Australian Bank of Commerce in 1910, passed to the Bank of New South Wales in 1931, and the Commonwealth Savings Bank moved in in 1934. The Queensland Government Savings Bank, set up in 1861 to encourage small deposits by working people, merged with it in 1921 and had leased the Customs House before moving here.
Located at 63 Victoria Street in central Mackay, visitors can observe the exterior architectural details including the classical facade, decorative entablature with triglyphs, and cast iron work that characterizes regional banking architecture.
The night safe sits at the front on the left-hand side of the facade. The upper floor was built as a residence, reached by paired glazed doors with arched top panes opening onto the cast iron veranda. The stucco on both levels is ruled to imitate ashlar masonry.
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