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Royal Bank of Queensland is a heritage-listed former bank at 199 Mary Street, Gympie, Gympie Region, Queensland, Australia. It was designed by Hugo Durietz and built in 1892. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 15 April 2011. == History == The former Royal Bank of Queensland building at Gympie, located at 199 Mary Street, was designed by architect Hugh Durietz in 1891 and built in 1892. This neoclassical building served as the Gympie branch of successive banks for 87 years, firstly as Royal Bank of Queensland from 1892 and finally as the National Australia Bank to 1979.〔 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 and contributed 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 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.〔 Mainly due to Queensland's three major gold mining centres - Gympie, Charters Towers and Mount Morgan - gold production contributed between 21.61 and 35.53 percent of Queensland's export income during the 1880s and 1890s. The value of gold output rose from £698,000 in 1883 to £2.75m in 1889, exceeding the value of exported wool. These enormous amounts of gold were purchased by banks such as the Royal Bank, which played a vital role in this process of wealth creation and distribution.〔 The influx of money and the resultant yield of gold at Gympie were reflected in the redevelopment of upper Mary Street during the 1880s and 1890s with substantial commercial buildings such as banks and company secretary and brokers' offices. Several fires - in 1877, 1881 and 1891 - razed the earlier timber buildings in upper Mary Street and accelerated this transformation. A fire in January 1891 destroyed all of the buildings between the Gympie Times offices and the Mining Exchange Hotel which lead to the construction of more permanent masonry buildings on the eastern side of upper Mary Street. The last of the new buildings erected was the Royal Bank of Queensland, located adjacent to the Gympie Times office.〔 Designed by Hugh Durietz in 1891, tenders were invited for the erection of the bank premises in December 1891; closing on 24 December. The bank was completed in 1892.〔 Hugo Durietz (1831-1908) dominated Gympie architecture and its society. He was reported as having trained as an architect in Sweden before migrating to Victoria in 1852, attracted by its gold discoveries. He joined the gold rush to Canoona (Queensland) in 1858 but by 1862 had commenced business as a builder in Brisbane. He was contracted to build the Bank of New South Wales building on the corner of Queen and George Streets in Brisbane (subsequently replaced by the present building), supervised by James Cowlishaw, in 1864-65. In 1866 he was elected as an alderman for Kangaroo Point in the Brisbane Town Council but was bankrupted during the 1867 depression. After finalisation of his insolvency case in December 1867 he joined the rush to the Gympie goldfield where he became involved in many innovative business enterprises and joined community committees including those of the School of Arts; hospital; Mutual Improvement Association; Agricultural, Mining and Pastoral Society; and the Gympie Primary School. He is also attributed with introducing the mechanical cream separator to Queensland, a vital factor in the growth of the Queensland dairy industry.〔 By 1871 Durietz had begun his practise as an architect in Gympie and for more than 30 years he was commissioned by institutions on whose committees he served, many religious denominations and by business leaders and professionals, often on an ongoing basis. He tendered for 113 buildings during his career; projects ranging from numerous hotels, shops and cottages to public buildings in Gympie like the Surface Hill Wesleyan Church, the Gympie School of Arts and the Royal Bank building.〔 The Royal Bank of Queensland, established in 1885 by local investors who were finding it hard to obtain loans from sources outside Queensland, was intended as an alternative to its rival the Queensland National Bank. It was one of only three Queensland-based banks established during the 19th century. The head office opened in Brisbane in February 1886 and although it established three branches in the mining towns of Gympie, Charters Towers and Croydon, it generally avoided mining towns because they were too risky. Instead the Royal Bank concentrated on mercantile and agricultural interests near the coast, opening branches in sound agricultural districts and ports. By 1889 it had 20 branches and agencies including branches in London and Edinburgh. In 1890 the Royal Bank occupied fifth place amongst the ten banks trading in Queensland. The Royal Bank, in contrast to the Queensland National Bank, generally contented itself with timber and iron premises rather than occupying extravagant masonry buildings in the larger towns; established a more cautious lending policy instead of erratic lending due to fluctuating government deposits; and was the bank of humbler men rather than of the elite.〔 Initially the Royal Bank had followed a cautious banking policy acquiring £1 million in deposits by the end of 1888. This forced the bank to increasingly lend to people and industries that could not easily repay on demand, thereby following the custom of Queensland banking. Subsequently, in May 1893 the Royal Bank became one of the many banks that temporarily ceased trading at the height of the 1893 banking crisis in Queensland. By the end of May a reconstruction scheme for the Royal Bank had been announced and in early August 1893 the bank re-opened for trading.〔 The 20th century brought a series of mergers for the Royal Bank of Queensland. In 1917 the bank merged with the Bank of North Queensland, which had opened in Townsville in 1888, to become the Bank of Queensland. In 1922 this bank was absorbed by the National Bank of Australasia. Following the amalgamation of the Queensland National Bank with the National Bank of Australasia to form the National Bank of Australia in 1948 there were two branches of the bank in Gympie - at 33 and 199 Mary Street.〔 In January 1980 the National Bank amalgamated its branches at 33 Mary Street and 199 Mary Street to form a single bank of the National Bank in Gympie at 33 Mary Street, ending 87 years of banking at 199 Mary Street. The former Royal Bank of Queensland building was auctioned in March of the same year and became commercial premises.〔 Alterations to the bank have included the enclosure of most of the rear verandah and some of the side verandah, the addition of partition walls to form an office in the centre of the public space and removal of the banking counter. Doorways in two interior walls have been altered. A ramp has been added on the left hand side from Mary Street to the main entrance. Roofing iron has been replaced on the main roof and the rear and side verandahs.〔 The former Royal Bank building before 2011 was the headquarters of the Gympie Muster.〔 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「Royal Bank of Queensland, Gympie」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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