Savings Bank of South Australia: from tiny 1848 start to classical head office in Currie Street, Adelaide city

The Savings Bank of South Australia grew from humble 1848 beginnings to be able to open in 1904 its Currie Street, Adelaide city, head office in classical style – “perhaps the finest feature in Adelaide's architecture" – later state heritage listed. The bank also opened elegant country branch buldings such as Gawler (upper right) and Kadine (bottom right).|
Images courtesy City of Adelaide and State Library of South Australia

From a humble start in 1848, the Savings Bank of South Australia grew to have a prestigious head office in Currie Street, Adelaide city, and elegant branch offices in rural centres by the eary 20^th Century.

The Savings Bank of South Australia was based on a movement first advocated by Scottish minister Henry Duncan to encourage working-class thrift. Also, before the savings bank movement, commercial banks weren’t interested in taking on the bookwork of small deposits from working-class men.

South Australia’s first premier Boyle Travers Finniss was a trustee of the province saving bank's inaugural board with lieutenant governor Frederick Robe as its president. John Hector, the bank's sole employee, opened the bank's books and the doors of its single room office, provided rent-free by the Glen Osmond Union Mining Company, in Gawler Place, Adelaide city, on March 11, 1848.

The bank's first depositor was recorded as “Croppo Sing" (described as an Afghan shepherd, but more likely a Sikh called Singh). He entrusted his life savings of £29 through his employer William Fowler of Lake Victoria. Twelve others lodged deposits totalling £172 and six shillings on that first business day.

A month later, the bank made its first loan of £500 to 25-year-old John Colton to buy two acres for a seven-roomed stone house, a cottage and stables. Colton had started a small wholesale harness and hardware business that grew into the well-known firm of Colton & Co (later Colton, Palmer and Preston). In 1875, Colton was appointed to the bank's board of trustees. Like many successful South Australian 19^th Century businessmen, he went into politics, serving as a minister in several governments before leading his own ministry for 16 months in 1876-77. Colton was knighted in 1892.

In 1861, the savings bank’s president and vice president roles were replaced by an elected chairman, with Robert Torrens, creator of the famous Torrens system of land titling and registration, as the first. Henry Ayers, pastoralist, miner and investor, succeeded Torrens a year later  went on to serve as premier of South Australia several times and later set up his own small merchant bank, H.L. & A.E. Ayers, that survived until the 1970s.

The bank’s base moved from Gawler Place to Gresham Chambers and another new building in King William Street, Adelaide city, in 1860, rebuilt in 1875. By the major economic crash of 1893, the saving bank was solidly established and its accommodation still inadequate. In 1901, a Currie Street site was bought for  £18,000. First prize in a design competition for a bank head office was won by architect Edward Davies. In 1902, the £27,587 tender of P. Rodger and Co. of Melbourne was accepted for construction. The bank trustees were undecided whether Murray Bridge or Pyrmont (New South Wales) stone should be used in construction. After four architects were consulted and an inspection of the schools of mines and the art gallery, the superior Pyrmont stone was used, amid press controversy. 

The magazine Building in 1915 commented that the new Currie Street bank building, opened in 1904, was “perhaps the finest feature in Adelaide's architecture, for in it the Classical style has been used and adapted – and while the correct proportions have been maintained, the distribution of the columns and the grouping of the features give the beauty of style and originality of adaptation.”

The Savings Bank of South Australia moved again to a new art deco head office in 1943 in King William Street, Adelaide city. During World War II, the Currie Street building was state headquarters of the Manpower and National Service Organisation, and later offices for the Commercial Bank of Australia and then the Commonwealth Bank.

The Saving Bank of South Australia had continued to be the people's bank and, in 1907, started the penny bank department to take deposits as little as one penny from school children. These school savings account quickly became popular and almost every public and private school in the state was permitted to take deposits from children on behalf of the bank. School banking instilled the savings mentality in children and helped to make the bank the largest in South Australia. The bank became fully owned by the South Australian government in 1946 and was critical to funding premier Thomas Playford’s ambitions for the Electricity Trust of South Astralia and the Housing Trust.

In 1984, the savings bank merged with the other government-owned State Bank of South Australia (established in 1896). In 1991, the merged State Bank collapsed due to non-performing assets exceeding 30% of its loan book, creating one of the state’s biggest economic disasters. From that upheaval, BankSA emerged after being part of St George Bank, a subsidiary of Westpac.

• Including information from Savings Bank of South Australia, Our century, 1948 and the Heritage of the City of Adelaide: An Illustrated Guide (1996).