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Queensland National Bank is a heritage-listed bank at 3 Victoria Street, Forest Hill, Queensland, Australia. It was built . It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 21 October 1992. == History == This single-storeyed timber building was erected c.1909 as offices for the Forest Hill branch of the powerful Queensland National Bank, established in 1872. The building was constructed on land leased, in November 1909, from Forest Hill property owner Allister McAllister. McAllister had acquired the site in 1897, as part of a larger block at the corner of Victoria and William Streets, on which he erected the Lockyer Hotel c.1906. The new QNB building was erected adjacent to the hotel and close to the railway depot, in the commercial centre of the town. The Queensland National Bank first opened a branch office at Forest Hill on 10 September 1901, in leased premises. A c.1908 photograph shows the branch occupying part of George Wyman's store in Victoria Street. It was the town's first bank, opened during the early 20th century growth of Forest Hill as a railhead and service centre, following closer agricultural settlement of the area in the late 1890s and early 1900s.〔 Until the 1880s, Forest Hill was part of the 20,000 acre Rosewood run, first taken up by DC McConnel in 1840, and later occupied by Kent & Wienholt, who worked the station in conjunction with their Jondaryan run. The Forest Hill land was heavily timbered, with some large gum swamps. The Ipswich to Toowoomba railway was surveyed between Laidley and Gatton in 1865, but a siding was not established in the Forest Hill area, about a mile and a half closer to Laidley than the present Forest Hill railway station, until c.1881. Originally it was called Boyd's Siding, servicing the property of Mr AJ Boyd, about 4 miles from the railway line. Boyd, the first agriculturalist in the area, planted an orchard and named his property Forest Hill, after which the siding was named in the early 1880s. This siding was shifted to the site of the present Forest Hill station c.1887.〔 In 1886 and 1889, Kent & Wienholt cut up 3,500 acres south of the second Forest Hill siding, into farm selections. This was the impetus for the establishment of an agricultural community at Forest Hill, but the township of Forest Hill did not emerge until the late 1890s, following the Queensland government's 1896 repurchase of part of the Rosewood freehold, 6,000 acres of fertile black soil land on the northern side of the Forest Hill railway station. The Rosewood Estate was cut into blocks of 70 to 125 acres, and sold at prices from £3 to £5 5s per acre, repayable over 20 years. The sale was part of a government initiative to encourage agricultural settlement of the rich West Moreton lands, by opening for selection nearly all the country between Lowood and Gatton.〔 In January 1903, the Board of the QNB decided to close the Forest Hill branch and transfer the business to Laidley, but this was reversed following protest from Forest Hill residents. The decision to remain was timely: a further 18,000 acres in the Lockyer Valley were cut up and sold as farms in 1903, and Forest Hill emerged as a thriving township. By 1908, Forest Hill was despatching more produce than either of the older and larger settlements of Gatton and Laidley, and of this, about 70 percent came from the farms on the repurchased estates. This boom corresponded with the erection of purpose-built bank premises for the QNB at Forest Hill, .〔 The QNB, and later the National Bank, leased the site on which the bank building was erected, for over 60 years. The branch was closed temporarily on 2 February 1943, as part of the wartime rationalisation of bank branches in Australia, but was re-opened on 3 February 1947. In 1948 the Queensland National bank was amalgamated with the National Bank of Australasia Ltd, and the Forest Hill office then became part of the National Bank network.〔 In 1970 the leased land on which the bank building stood was purchased by the National Bank from the estate of Miss E McAllister, but the branch at Forest Hill survived only another 6 years, closing on 16 June 1976. The decision to close the Forest Hill branch after nearly 75 years, reflected a trend, occasioned by improved transport and communications, for district residents to purchase goods and services at the larger centres of Gatton and Laidley. Following closure of the branch, the land and premises were sold, and the bank fittings were removed. The building has served since as retail premises.〔 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「Queensland National Bank, Forest Hill」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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