The Bank’s Glass Plate Negative Collection contains approximately 793 silver gelatin-coated dry plate negatives. Prior to digital and film technology, glass plate negatives were in common use from around 1880 to the late 1920s. Their predecessor, wet plate negatives, had to be exposed and processed before the plate dried. Dry plate negatives could be pre-coated with emulsion and used dry, making photography much more accessible and commercially viable.

The glass plates themselves have not yet been digitised. This collection is based on prints which have been developed from selected negatives at different times in the past leading to a diversity of print formats which have been scanned in their current form.

Some images within the Glass Plate Negative Collection depict a swastika-style design on the floor of the public banking chamber. These images are from the early 1900s when this design was a popular motif. During this period the swastika design had no affiliation with any political party and was widely used in decorative schemes. Throughout history, the swastika has been used across many religions and nations. The word itself means ‘good fortune’.

A small number of gaps exist in the Glass Plate Negative Collection where negatives have been destroyed or lost at some time in the past. Therefore, although the negatives are numbered from one to 793 – there are no entries for some of the numbers therein.

Photographers

The negatives were produced by several professional photographers commissioned by the Government Savings Bank of New South Wales, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia and the State Savings Bank of Tasmania. Some of the photographers involved include:

Algernon Darge (1878–1941). A Melbourne-based professional photographer and lanternist best known for his images of soldiers during the First World War and his eccentric character. Darge was first known by his birth name, Algy Sharp, but changed his name to Darge, matching his studio name ‘Darge studio’ which was based at 175 Collins St, Melbourne. He was active between 1903 and 1940. The photographs taken by Darge are stamped with his studio name and address.

Milton Kent (1888–1965). Some of the photographs are stamped with ‘Milton C. Kent, 131 Cardigan St., Stanmore NSW’ and ‘Milton C. Kent, Haberfield NSW’ Kent was a well-known Australian photographer who worked for the Federal Government, the City of Sydney and a large range of commercial clients. Best known for his aerial photographs, Kent was active from 1909 until his retirement in 1961.

Frederick Thiel (1896–1960). A Brisbane-based photographer, Thiel was the first person to take photographs of Brisbane from an airplane, which he did in September 1919. He also took photographs for The Queenslander newspaper. 

Subjects

Include:

• Bank premises e.g. internal and external images of branches around Australia (sometimes including staff residences); customers doing their banking; temporary Bank branches opened in military camps; banking on the side of the Trans-Australian Railway.
• Staff e.g. named staff include Denison Miller, James Kell, Mark Baker Young, Mr HT Armitage, Victor Neilley. There are also images of staff at work inside Bank premises.
• Street scenes, especially of the Sydney and Martin Place (previously Moore Street)
• Construction of Bank-related buildings such as the Commonwealth Bank Head Office (cnr Pitt St and Martin Place) and the Government Savings Bank Head Office (48-50 Martin Place) in Sydney. Includes external and internal images of building works and finished rooms.
• Staff social days e.g. swimming carnival, boat races, sack races, golf days, reunion for returned soldiers.
• First World War activities e.g. fund raising activities involving tanks driven through the streets to sell war bonds (in Bondi Junction, Mosman, Mittagong, Newtown, North Sydney, Randwick, Redfern, Sussex St (City)); launch of Seventh War Loan campaign activities from a Destroyer in Moore St. Sydney; war loan posters; training programs for returned soldiers after the First World War.
• First World War shop window dressing competition including Bon Marche, Edward Arnold & Co., F Lassetters, Anthony Hordern & Sons, Grace Bros., Sweet Bros., Sydney Snows, Farmers, and David Jones.
• War Service Homes built in the Sydney area. Suburbs include: Abbotsford, Ashfield, Balgowlah, Drummoyne, Enfield, Five Dock, Manly.
• Technology: pneumatic tube messaging system, facsimile writing machines.

Building the Head Office of the new Commonwealth Bank

Upon becoming Governor in 1912, Denison Miller decided that Sydney, the largest city in the Commonwealth, should be the site of the Head Office rather than Melbourne, then the seat of Federal Government. The head office was temporarily located in Stanway House, King Street, Sydney, and a site on the corner of Pitt Street and Moore Street (now Martin Place) was purchased for £93,000 by the Commonwealth Government on 23 October 1912. During his travels to England, Europe and the United States, the Governor studied the architecture of the banks and returned with ideas for the design of the building which he communicated to John Kirkpatrick, appointed as the first architect to work for the Commonwealth Bank. As well as designing the head office building, Kirkpatrick also planned a number of the Bank’s branches, including those in other state capitals, so establishing a consistent architectural style for the Commonwealth Bank.

The head office building’s opening on 22 August 1916 was an extraordinary occasion, with crowds filling Martin Place for the ceremony. The building was one of the first large-scale, steel-framed skyscrapers in Australia. The new 10-storey structure rose to the full height allowed by the Height of Buildings Act 1912 (NSW), which prohibited the construction of any building higher than 150 feet. Its solid, symmetrical design adapts the ‘Commercial Palazzo’ style which combines innovation with tradition, and suggests both affluence and stability in a way well suited to a bank premises. Although the building incorporates allusions to Grecian Doric elements, its materials are nearly all Australian, including Sydney sandstone. The Bank’s main doorways are emphasised by Doric columns, with the Australian coat of arms above the Martin Place entrance, and the Commonwealth Bank’s arms above the Pitt Street door. Each coat of arms of the country’s six states is represented in a cartouche across the façade, reflecting the Bank’s national reach.

First World War

From 1915 to 1918, the Commonwealth Bank managed the raising of funds for the war effort and ensured the payment of service people in foreign countries. The Commonwealth Bank coordinated with the Defence Department to operate branches at the military training camps, so helping the service people to open savings accounts and access their money while serving overseas. Under the leadership of its first Governor, Denison Miller (1860–1923), the Bank raised nearly £258 million. The Bank continued to raise funds after the war for the repatriation of service people, and attained a further £60 million. Throughout these years, the Bank’s new head office in Sydney’s Martin Place sported numerous banners and slogans including ‘Save and Serve Buy A War Loan Bond’, ‘Help Your Homeland’, and ‘Buy a Share In Victory,’ and the building quickly became associated in the minds of Australians with national pride, stability and patriotism.

The photographs from this period capture the determined efforts of Australians during the hostilities, as the country’s capital cities and suburbs competed with each other to raise funds for the war effort, and later to assist the repatriation of its service people. War service homes were constructed with the funds, and ex-service people were offered vocational training as they returned to civilian life with the hope of a ‘reign of continuous peace’, as expressed by the New South Wales Premier, William Holman.

Fundraising for the First World War

To fund the war, the Government decided to raise loans from the public, and the Commonwealth Bank of Australia was entrusted with the task of managing the operation on behalf of the Government. The Australian public lent their money in exchange for War Loan Bonds and Certificates. The smallest bond was for £10, and bonds could be paid for by instalment. On 1 July 1915, the first of seven war loans was launched. Public support was enthusiastic and continued throughout the period as each loan raised more funds than targeted. The Fifth War Loan started on 6 September 1917, dubbed the ‘Liberty Loan’, linking Australia with the United States and the term used for its loans. After the Sixth War Loan ‘Before Sunset Buy a War Loan Bond’ was launched on 17 February 1918, and raised more than its goal, the Government worried that the public would not contribute to another. However, one last loan – the Seventh War Loan – was launched on 1 August 1918. Approximately one household in every four throughout the Commonwealth contributed to the Seventh War Loan, and it became the most successful of all the loans.

Inventive means were employed to encourage the public to buy war bonds. As in other countries of the British Empire, tanks were used to demonstrate advances in military technology, and to attract money for the war effort. Tank Week was held from 3 to 10 April 1918 in conjunction with the Sixth War Loan, and Sir Walter Davidson, the Governor of New South Wales, opened the week outside the Commonwealth Bank’s head office in Sydney. He delivered his address from an observation platform on a model tank. Model tanks toured to Sydney’s suburbs, including Balmain, Manly, Mosman and Randwick, as well as regional areas and other states around Australia. Four minute speeches were delivered by prominent men on each occasion. Tank Week was so successful that it was extended until 24 April.

To promote and stimulate public interest in the Seventh War Loan, a model destroyer, HMAS Australia, was erected in Martin Place, Sydney. The seventh loan was officially launched at noon on 16 September 1918; the ceremony took place from the bow of the destroyer and its guns were fired. Sir Walter Davidson boarded the ship with members of the New South Wales Central War Loan Committee and representatives of the Federal and State Governments, as well as the army and navy. Subscriptions were received on board the destroyer, which was used as a bank throughout the war loan campaign.

Peace loans

At the end of the First World War, Australia remained in dire need of funds and so a new series of campaigns was launched, with the First Peace Loan being announced in the Federal Parliament on 30 July 1919. Public appeals called on Australians to help the wounded and valiant soldiers who had fought in the war. On 13 September 1919, the Prime Minister, Billy Hughes, appealed for the peace loans at the ‘Temple of Peace’, Martin Place, having been carried from Sydney’s Town Hall on a chair fixed between two poles. Once at Martin Place, Hughes delivered an emotive speech explaining the use and importance of the Peace Loan Bonds. The Second Peace Loan campaign was launched in July 1920, and the third on the 8 August 1921. This last peace loan was used for purchasing and building war service homes and to fund the vocational training of ex-servicemen.

War service homes

One consequence of the war was a shortage of houses in Australia. The Commonwealth Bank worked with the War Service Homes Commissioner to provide homes for returned servicemen with John and Herwald Kirkpatrick, the same architect and consultant engineering firm that worked on the Commonwealth Bank head office, being appointed to oversee the building of the homes. The first war service home was built at 32 Kennedy Avenue, Canterbury in August 1919. The foundation stone was ceremoniously laid by Governor Denison Miller.

State Savings Banks: Tasmania (Hobart) c.1913.

Government Savings Bank of New South Wales: consists mainly of construction photographs during the building of the Head Office premises in the Sydney central business district c.1915–1916.

Commonwealth Bank of Australia:

Branches represented include:

This information is drawn from records held by the Reserve Bank of Australia and the following external sources:

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum website, The History of the Swastika; accessed 8 January 2021.