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The Bank of New South Wales is a heritage-listed former bank at 242 Mary Street, Gympie, Queensland, Australia. It was designed by Richard Gailey and built from 1890 to 1891 by T. Kelly. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 15 April 2011. == History == The former Bank of New South Wales building located in upper Mary Street, Gympie was designed by Richard Gailey and built in 1890-91. This two storey neo-classical building was purpose-built as the Gympie branch of the Bank of New South Wales, which had been operating at the Gympie goldfield since March 1868. It comprised ground floor banking facilities, upper floor manager's residence and a basement.〔 Gympie (initially known as Nashville) was established after the discovery of gold in the Mary River district in October 1867. The new goldfield turned Queensland into a significant gold producer, contributing much needed finances to the young colony. Thousands of people arrived at the Gympie goldfield in the months after the discovery and a fledgling settlement emerged. In a year the alluvial gold had been exhausted and shallow reef mining commenced.〔 As Gympie evolved from a hastily established mining settlement, the early makeshift structures of the 1860s gradually gave way to more permanent and substantial public and private buildings from the mid 1870s. With the change to deep reef mining from 1875, came the need for extensive capital investment through the formation of companies using foreign as well as local capital. During 1881, mines began yielding large amounts of gold, marking a new era of wealth and prosperity for Gympie as an intensive phase of underground reef mining began, facilitated by the injection of capital into mining companies for machinery and employees. The influx of money and the resultant yield of gold was reflected in the redevelopment of upper Mary Street during the 1880s and 1890s with substantial commercial buildings such as banks, company secretaries' and brokers' offices. One of these was the Bank of New South Bank building, which opened in 1891.〔 The Bank of New South Wales (BNSW) was the first bank established in Australia (February 1817) but it was restricted to trading in Sydney until 1850. After restructure in that year it opened its first branch outside Sydney, in Brisbane, on 14 November 1850. It expanded rapidly thereafter with the rush of gold discoveries in New South Wales and Victoria. The bank set up agencies and gold-buying agents at every new diggings 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 BNSW had grown from a single Sydney office in 1850 to a network of 37 branches in Australia and New Zealand.〔 Subsequently, with the discovery of gold at Gympie the Bank opened an agency on the goldfield on 21 March 1868, less than six months after the goldfield's establishment. In the same year the bank transferred to a building owned by Merry and Davis. An 1868 photograph of lower Mary Street, Gympie shows the Bank of New South Wales operating from a weatherboard-clad building with a shingle roof.〔 Over the ensuing years as it became increasingly clear that the Gympie goldfield was a long-term proposition, a series of steps towards permanency were taken by the bank reflecting this longevity. Firstly, in 1872 the BNSW agency converted to a branch with the increased banking services that entailed.〔 Secondly, in 1879 the bank purchased the 22 perch allotment on which the current building stands and occupied the timber and tin building on the site until selling it prior to the building of the current structure. Thirdly, the decision at the end of the 1880s to build a masonry building followed the growth of deep reef mining on the goldfield and the rise in Gympie's gold output throughout the decade.〔 The 1880s were a decade of rapid growth and development and rising land prices in Queensland. Mainly due to Queensland's three major gold mining centres - Gympie, Charters Towers and Mount Morgan - the value of gold output rose from £698,000 in 1883 to £2.75m in 1889, exceeding the value of exported wool. 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 such as the BNSW, which played a vital role in this process of wealth creation and distribution.〔 In 1881, the bank was burned down along with a number of other buildings in a large fire. In February 1890 Brisbane architect Richard Gailey advertised for tenders to build a brick building for the Bank of New South Wales in Gympie. On 24 March the old bank building on the site was sold and building of the new premises commenced.〔 Business commenced in the new premises on 31 March 1891, completed at a cost of £4000.〔 The two storey building comprised rendered brick walls and an iron roof. At the rear was a two-stall stable with harness room. The second storey of the building comprised the manager's residence and an early photograph shows a verandah on the lower (eastern) side of the first floor.〔 The building's architect, Richard Gailey (1834-1924) was a Londonderry man who had settled in Brisbane in 1864. He established his own practice there in 1865, and over the next 60 years built up a thriving business; working until his death in 1924. He designed Baptist churches including the Baptist City Tabernacle in Brisbane, the former Baptist Church in Ipswich; commercial buildings such as banks including the Westpac Bank Building in Normanton; and many hotels including the Jubilee Hotel, Orient Hotel, Regatta Hotel and Wickham Hotel (all in Brisbane). Many commercial buildings in Brisbane designed by Gailey during the 1880s were characterised by classical idioms and details.〔 Substantial changes in the Queensland mining sector occurred after 1900. A treatment process for mine tailings that used cyanide had provided Gympie a record yield in 1899. Gold production in Queensland peaked in 1903, due largely to a final burst of production at Gympie, which was followed by a 60% decrease in production between 1903 and 1913 as the three major Queensland goldfields (Charters Towers, Gympie and Mount Morgan) declined simultaneously. The Gympie field passed through its most profitable period from 1901 to 1906 and in 1903 recorded an output of 146,000 fine ounces (surpassing Mount Morgan that year). After 1906 the decline that had set in at Gympie in 1904 accelerated, finally resulting in the closure of the last mine .〔 In conjunction with this downturn Gympie evolved into a service town for the region's growing dairy and agricultural industries. Over time the commercial centre of the town moved eastward down Mary Street in response to the commercial activity centring upon the railway station. The BNSW continued to operate from its location in upper Mary Street until June 1940 when the Bank purchased a block of land closer to the commercial centre of the town at the corner of Mary and Smithfield Streets and new premises were erected. The BNSW building at 242 Mary Street was sold to the Widgee Shire Council in the same year.〔 Alterations to the former BNSW building were made on several occasions. In 1902 "steel" () ceilings were fitted in the BNSW building by Messrs Crane and son. In 1938 the BNSW made alterations and additions to the bank premises and installed a septic system. After purchase by the Widgee Shire Council in 1940 the building was used as shire chambers and office space after some changes were made for this purpose by architects Addison and McDonald who called tenders in June 1940. In February 1981, extension and alterations to the south-east of the building to provide offices facing Mary Street took place.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Bank of New South Wales Building, Gympie」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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