Class

'Financial royal family's' Bank of Adelaide, with origins in 1865, forced into selloff in 1979

'Financial royal family's' Bank of Adelaide, with origins in 1865, forced into selloff in 1979
The Bank of Adelaide had branches throughout the state, such as this early one at Swan Reach.
Image courtesy State Library of South Australia

In the 1970s, South Australian premier Don Dunstan claimed that a “financial royal family” ran the state. That “family” was the directors of the Bank of Adelaide, SA Brewing and The Advertiser newspaper.

By 1979, one of those three pillars, the Bank of Adelaide, dating back to 1865, had collapsed. 

Yet, in the early 1970s, the Bank of Adelaide was picking up on the pace of interstate expansion it had started after World War I. Sydney (1919) was the bank’s first branch in an interstate network, followed by Melbourne (1920), Perth (1922), and Brisbane (1927).

Its corporate strength improved dramatically. The savings bank business, started in 1962, expanded solidly, increasing market share. The Bank of Adelaide with the Bank of New South Wales (now Westpac) and the Colonial Sugar Refining were the few Australian companies that had always paid a dividend to shareholders.

In 1969, the Bank of Adelaide bought the whole shareholding of Finance Corporation of Australia to increase its flexibility. The bank also was a leader in computer banking by forming Adelaide Group Data.

Dandenong (1963) and Hobart (1970) were later interstate additions and the move into the Australian Capital Territory was successful with the Canberra City (1968), Woden (1975) and Belconnen (1977) branches.

Townsville branch followed in 1978 – the year the bank discovered that its subsidiary Finance Corporation of Australia had run up a fatal level of bad debts.

In September 1979, at an extraordinary and angry meeting of bank shareholders at Adelaide Town Hall, board chairman Arthur Rymill successfully urged them to accept a takeover by the ANZ Bank.

  • The Bank of Adelaide is not to be confused with the more recent Adelaide Bank that merged with Bendigo Bank.

Other related ADELAIDE AZ articles

Commonwealth Club lunch for England-to-Australia aviation race winners Ross Smith, Keith Smith, warrant officer James Bennett and sergeant Walter Shiers, in the Queen's Hall, Grenfell Street, Adelaide city, on March  25,1920. Below: A 21st Century lunch.
International >
Commonwealth Club of Adelaide starts lunch tradition in 1910 with noted international and national speakers
READ MORE+
The interior of the Public Schools Club on East Terrace, Adelaide city. The South Australian state-heritage-listed building was originally build for future Nobel Prize winner William Bragg and his family, including another Nobel Prize winner, his son (William) Lawrence.
Heritage >
Public Schools Club formed in Adelaide in 1960 from combining St Peter's and Prince Alfred old collegians
READ MORE+
First Anglican bishop of Adelaide, Augustus Short (1847-81).
Class >
High-church Anglican first bishop of Adelaide Augustus Short has to confront evangelical and dissenter pushback
READ MORE+
Arthur Rymill, as Adelaide lord mayor during the 1950s, worked with long-time town clerk W.C.D. Veale to significantly improve the city parklands including what became the eastern Rymill Park. 
Adelaide City >
Arthur Rymill staunch conservative as mayor of Adelaide, politician, businessman but loves high speeding in boats
READ MORE+
Samuel Way, who founded the Acclimatisation Society of South Australia, with a group of ornithologists at his North Adelaide home in 1905. Image courtesy State Library of South Australia
Class >
Acclimatisation Society of South Australia founded in 1878 by Samuel Way and other prominent colonists
READ MORE+
A fete in the late 1840s at Prospect House mansion in the area that became the Adelaide suburb of Prospect. Inset: John Benjamin Graham who built the mansion.
Minerals >
Rymill family influence in Adelaide starts with link to John Graham, whose Prospect House built with Burra riches
READ MORE+

 

 
©2025 Adelaide AZ | Privacy | Terms & Disclaimer | PWA 1.1.58