The Bank of Australia was a failed financial institution of early colonial New South Wales formed in 1826 by a producers' and merchants' group as a rival to the Bank of New South Wales

Westpac

Westpac , is a multinational financial services, one of the Australian "big four" banks and the second-largest bank in New Zealand....

. It was dubbed the "pure merino" bank because its share register included the plutocracy of the colony but excluded the ex-convicts who had been associated with the Bank of New South Wales. When investors responded to the depression of the late 1830s by the abrupt withdrawal of capital leading to a chain of insolvencies, a number of colonial banks found that their unrestricted lending had sent prices land soaring as speculators borrowed to invest especially in urban areas. When the banks called in these loans further insolvencies occurred and a number of banks, including the Bank of Australia, failed in 1843. A number of leading colonial figures lost their fortunes with many taking advantage of the Insolvent Debtors Act 1841.

Opening

The bank opened on 3 July 1826 in George Street, Sydney. The first directors of the Bank were: Thomas Macvitie (managing director), Edward Wollstonecraft

Edward Wollstonecraft

Edward Wollstonecraft was a successful businessman in early colonial Australia. He was the nephew of the early feminist Mary Wollstonecraft and cousin to Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, the author of Frankenstein....

, John Macarthur

John Macarthur (wool pioneer)

John Macarthur was a British army officer, entrepreneur, politician, architect and pioneer of settlement in Australia. Macarthur is recognised as the pioneer of the wool industry that was to boom in Australia in the early 19th century and become a trademark of the nation...

, Richard Jones, Thomas Icely, John Oxley

John Oxley

John Joseph William Molesworth Oxley was an explorer and surveyor of Australia in the early period of English colonisation.October 1802 he was engaged in coastal survey work including an expedition to Western Port in 1804-05...

, George Brown, W.J. Browne, Hannibal Macarthur, James Norton

James Norton (colonial New South Wales figure)

James Norton was a solicitor and public figure in early colonial New South Wales. Admitted to practise in England, he arrived in Sydney in September 1818 where only four other attorneys were then practising. He was the founder of the first law firm in Sydney...

, and A.B. Spark.

1828 bank theft

In September 1828, thieves tunnelled into the Bank of Australia in Lower George Street, Sydney and stole about £14,000 pounds, described in 2008 as "the largest documented bank theft" in Australian history (in relative values and expressed as a proportion of GDP).