Perth Building Society was Western Australia

Western Australia

Western Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...

’s first building society

Building society

A building society is a financial institution owned by its members as a mutual organization. Building societies offer banking and related financial services, especially mortgage lending. These institutions are found in the United Kingdom and several other countries.The term "building society"...

. It operated from 1862 to 1987, when it amalgamated with the Hotham Permanent Building Society to form Challenge Bank.

PBS was founded by WA Attorney General G.F. Stone, Lt. Col. J. Bruce, Adjutant General W. Knight, Rev. G.P. Pownall, Magistrate H. Wakefield and Joseph Thomas Reilly.

It proposed an earlier merger in 1981 with Bendigo Bank

Bendigo Bank

Bendigo Bank is an Australian financial institution, operating primarily in retail banking. The company merged with Adelaide Bank in November 2007, with shareholders voting in March 2008 to change the merged company’s name to Bendigo and Adelaide Bank Limited.Before the merger, Bendigo Bank...

, but Bendigo customers and shareholders opposed the move.

Bryce Moore’s history of the Perth Building Society was published in 1989