 National Bank of Australasia, Naracoorte, South Australia in 1931 | |
| Industry | Banking |
|---|---|
| Founded | 8 October 1858 |
| Defunct | 1982 |
| Fate | Merger with Commercial Banking Company of Sydney |
| Successor | National Australia Bank |
| Headquarters | Melbourne, Australia |
The National Bank of Australasia was a bank based in Melbourne. It was established in 1857, and in 1982 merged with the Commercial Banking Company of Sydney to form National Australia Bank.
In 1857, Alexander Gibb, a Melbourne gentleman, enlisted Andrew Cruickshank, a local merchant and pastoralist, to raise the capital to establish National Bank of Australasia with headquarters in Melbourne. The prospectus was published on 18 November 1857. [2] The legal work establishing the bank was performed by a predecessor of King & Wood Mallesons. Cruickshank became its first chairman while Gibb left after being passed over for the position of General Manager. Prior to the opening of the bank, several shareholders took an unsuccessful action in the colony's Supreme Court claiming that Cruikshank and several other directors had been appointed illegally. [3] The first branch opened in Melbourne on 8 October 1858. [4] The bank was incorporated by the Colony of Victoria on 24 February 1859. [5] The bank opened its first branch in South Australia the same year. [ citation needed ] Expansion to other Australian states followed, with branches opening in Tasmania (1859), Western Australia (1866), New South Wales (1885) and finally Queensland (1920).
An early branch established in Mauritius (1859) closed within a year, but a London branch (1864) was established to handle financing and payment for Australian exports of wool, gold and other commodities, and imports to Australia, was more successful.
National Bank of Australasia was one of many banks that closed its doors during the banking crisis of 1893. Director John Grice was active in the crisis, from which the bank re-emerged as a public limited company, incorporated on 23 June 1893.
For the next half century, growth was stimulated by a number of acquisitions:
The bank opened a representative office in Tokyo in 1946, later upgraded to a branch in 1985. The bank's overseas interest expanded more rapidly in the 1970s. It opened a branch in Singapore in 1971, and representative offices in Jakarta (1973) and Hong Kong (1974). It took minority interests in merchant banks in these locations at the same time, and in Hong Kong established a 50–50 joint venture merchant bank with Mitsubishi Bank and Trust, but withdrew from these arrangements in 1984. Its first US presence was established in 1977 with a branch and an agency in Los Angeles that closed in 1993.
St.George Bank is an Australian bank with its headquarters in Sydney. Since a 2008 merger, the bank has been part of Westpac, having previously been an independent legal entity. In 2010, St.George was deregistered as a company and ceased to be a standalone authorised deposit-taking institution.
Banking in Australia is dominated by four major banks: Commonwealth Bank, Westpac, Australia & New Zealand Banking Group and National Australia Bank. There are several smaller banks with a presence throughout the country which includes Bendigo and Adelaide Bank, Suncorp Bank, and a large number of other financial institutions, such as credit unions, building societies and mutual banks, which provide limited banking-type services and are described as authorised deposit-taking institutions (ADIs). Many large foreign banks have a presence, but few have a retail banking presence. The central bank is the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA). The Australian government’s Financial Claims Scheme (FCS) guarantees deposits up to $250,000 per account-holder per ADI in the event of the ADI failing.
Sir John O'Shanassy, KCMG, was an Irish-Australian politician who served as the 2nd Premier of Victoria. O'Shanassy was born near Thurles in County Tipperary, Ireland, the son of a surveyor, and came to the Port Phillip District in 1839. He went into business in Melbourne as a draper, and by 1846 he was rich enough to be elected to the Melbourne City Council and to become the founding chairman of the Colonial Bank of Australasia. By the 1850s he was a major landowner and one of the wealthiest men in the colony. He also became a recognised leader of the large Irish Catholic community.
Dr. Alexander Thomson was elected as the first mayor of Geelong and held the position on five occasions from 1850 to 1858. Thomson was the first settler in the area known as Belmont, a suburb of Geelong and called his homestead Kardinia, a property now listed on the Register of the National Estate.
P&O Banking Corporation, was a bank established in 1920, by Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company to develop its private banking business.
Australian rules football began its evolution in Melbourne, Australia about 1858. The origins of Australian football before 1858 are still the subject of much debate, as there were a multitude of football games in Britain, Europe, Ireland and Australia whose rules influenced the early football games played in Melbourne.
The Main Southern Railway is a major railway in New South Wales, Australia. It runs from Sydney to Albury, near the Victorian border. The line passes through the Southern Highlands, Southern Tablelands, South West Slopes and Riverina regions.
The following lists events that happened during 1859 in Australia.
The Bank of Australasia was an Australian bank in operation from 1835 to 1951.
The Colonial Bank of Australasia was a bank operating primarily in the Australian colony and then state of Victoria from 1856 to 1918.
The Commercial Banking Company of Sydney Limited, also known as the CBC, or CBC Bank, was a bank based in Sydney, Australia. It was established in 1834, and in 1982 merged with the National Bank of Australasia to form National Australia Bank.
The Union Bank of Australia was an Australian bank in operation from 1837 to 1951.
Thomas Fulton (1813–1859) was an iron foundry owner in Melbourne, Australia. He established one of the earliest foundries and engineering works in Melbourne in 1842 with Robert Langlands and laid the basis for the metal industry in the colony of Victoria.
William Highett was a banker, landowner and politician in colonial Victoria. He was also a member of the Victorian Legislative Council.
Bank of New South Wales is a heritage-listed former bank building at 7 Railway Street, Helidon, Lockyer Valley Region, Queensland, Australia. It was built in c. 1915. It is also known as Bank of Commerce, Bank of Queensland Limited, and The Royal Bank of Queensland Limited. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 21 October 1992.
Michael Cashmore was a merchant, the first Jewish settler of Melbourne, Victoria, and remembered for his haberdashery business in Melbourne's first brick building, "Cashmore's Corner" at 1 Elizabeth Street.
The Bank of Queensland was a bank in Queensland, Australia. Established in London it opened for business in Brisbane on 13 August 1863 in the renovated premises of the former Joint Stock Bank. There had been just four (trading) banks established in Queensland by late 1862 but all from other Australian colonies, branches of New South Wales Bank, Union Bank of Australia, Australian Joint Stock Bank and the Bank of Australasia.
The London Chartered Bank of Australia was an English-run Australian bank which operated from 1852 to 1921.
Lowe Kong Meng was a Chinese-Australian businessman. Born into a trading family in Penang, Kong Meng learned English and French at an early age and worked as an importing merchant around the Indian Ocean. In 1853 he moved to Melbourne where he started a business importing goods for Chinese miners during the Victorian gold rush. After 1860, as the Chinese population in Melbourne peaked, he diversified into other lines of business, including investing in the Commercial Bank of Australia. Kong Meng was a prominent and well-regarded member of Melbourne's elite, and for a time was one of the city's wealthiest men. He was a leading defender of Chinese Australians at a time when their status was politically controversial and they were subjected to targeted taxation, discrimination and violence.
Walter Vardon Ralston was an Australian banker.
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