Bank of South Australia monopoly from 1836 founding broken by Savings Bank, Bank of Adelaide and others

The Bank of South Australia building (later referred to as the Edmund Wright House, after one of its architects, with Lloyd Tayler) on North Terrace, Adelaide city, opened in 1875. The building continued to be used by three of Australia's major banks for more than 90 years. The building as saved from being demolished in the 1970s and state heritage listed.
Image courtesy State Library of South Australia

Adelaide's first bank, the Bank of South Australia, evolved out of the South Australian Company, a driving force in the founding of the colony in 1836.

This bank was the only one that early businesses and the government could use until the Bank of Australasia (later to become ANZ) opened a branch opposite the later art gallery of North Terrace, Adelaide city, and ended the Bank of South Australia’s monopoly in 1839.

The Savings Bank of South Australia, opened in 1848, was based on the savings bank movement first advocated by Scotsman Henry Duncan to encourage the working class to save their money. The early years of good harvests saw banks such as the Union (1850) and Bank of Adelaide (1865) emerge to finance farmers and pastoralists. By1868, there were six banks in South Australia.

The Bank of South Australia asserted itself in 1875 when it opened its ornate French Renaissance head office in King William Street, Adelaide city, in 1878. But the Bank of South Australia was taken over by the Union Bank in 1892. By 1951, after various takeovers, the building was owned by the ANZ Bank until 1969 when it was sold to a Sydney developer who wanted to use the site for a multi-storey office block. An extensive campaign in the 1970s saved the building, with the state government buring it in 1971 and renaming it Edmund Wright House in honour of the prominent Adelaide architect.

During the 1870s building boom, the Commercial Bank of South Australia (1878) and Town & Country Bank (1881) started operating. But the recession between 1886 and mid 1890s killed off several banks and others merged or were taken over by banks from the other colonies.

The Bank of Adelaide was the sole local survivor of South Australia’s financial disaster, caused by land speculation, in 1893. Many banks closed their doors but the Bank of Adelaide remained open as normal.

To recognise this feat, the bank was proclaimed by the government under the Trustee Act 1893 as a one where trustees could deposit funds without liability to themselves. For many years, the bank was the only one in South Australia to enjoy that privilege.