Westpac Bank Building

On the corner of George Street and the Queen Street Mall at 33 Queen Street is the imposing Westpac Bank Building. Formerly the Bank of New South Wales Building, it is now home to a branch of the Westpac Bank. The six storey building houses not only the banking services, but a range of small to medium size business ranging from Realtors, Lawyers, Solicitors, Personnel Recruitment and Software companies throughout the Chambers.


The actual site of the building has been associated with banking since 1851. This building was constructed between 1928 to 1930 by Brisbane architects Hall and Devereux. Similar in style to the National Australia Bank down the street, the architecture is an an example of the neo-classical style used in other commercial and government buildings of similar scale and materials built during this period. The main facades comprise Helidon freestone as a stone facing on a base of Uralla polished granite. The facade also features four ionic columns which form a prominent and striking feature.


As a building on one of the main throughfares of the city, I imagine thousands of people walk past without giving this facade a second glance. After all, its a bank isn't it? Yet the building itself, and its architecture are so imposing and outstanding, that I find it amazing that you can walk passed without being overawed. Given the visual pollution of billboards and hoardings throwing glaring advertisements in garish colours at us, I love that a strong piece of architecture can remind us of where we've come from with the multi-cultural classical influences of our wonderful city in our historic buildings.

Cheers, I Love Brisbane, Wes.

Click Here for the Google Map Reference for this post.

An Historic Bank

The National Australia Bank at 308-322 Queen Street is registered as a Brisbane Historic Site. This forms part of the Brisbane Heritage Trail, which can be taken as a walking tour of the city. The Queensland National Bank was formed back in 1872, and all the big knob bankers of the time decided they needed a grand bank to represent them. As you can see, the size and for the time opulent nature of the bank reflected the prosperity of the time.

There is a guide reference next to the bank which outlines its history. It was completed in 1885 after five years of construction in what was known as the Italian Revival style. This was mainly for the Corinthian columns look, which gives it that slightly Roman feel. Inside they have a mahogany and walnut furniture, but I wasn't quite prepared to walk into the bank and take photos for the obvious security reasons.

For such a young country with respect to European influence, I'm still amazed that we seem to have a mix of architectural influences from various places and types in our Australian cities. Part of the reason for throwing this image up is because I love to look at historical sites and imagine the more historical reference markers they would have been using to define their style. Its hard to find much older than 200 years architecturally here in our cities in relation to when they were built, but from my naive eyes, and I'm no student of architectural design, their seems to be a hell of a lot of varying influence!

Cheers, I Love Brisbane, Wes.

Click Here for the Google Map Reference for this post.