Temporary Barcaldine branch bank buildings 1957-1962
A branch of the Commonwealth Bank opened in a prefabricated building on the site of the old Foresters Lodge Hall in Beech Street in 1957 with E. J. Williams as manager.
In 1961 the temporary building was given to the state school, and removed on wheels and installed on the site of the old School of Arts building.
The School of Arts had made way for extensions to the state school site.
Permanent premises 1962-1999
Trading continued in the pre-fab structure on the state school site until a permanent Commonwealth Bank opened on 2 July 1962.
Then the school took over the old building and used it for an audiovisual room. It is currently situated on the grounds of the Australian Workers’ Heritage Centre but not on its original site.
The Commonwealth Bank traded in its new building from 1962 to 1999. There was shock in the town when closure of the Commonwealth Bank was announced in May 1999 to take effect in July. The building was sold in August to Smith Bros. from Longreach.
Only an agency at the post office remained for basic transactions, or customers could travel to use the Longreach Branch, which is still open in 2020.
Post-1999
In February, 2000, an office of the Pioneer Permanent Building Society, based in Mackay, moved into the empty CBA building after opening 18 months previously in the old Symonds’ shop in Oak Street.
Then Council ran an agency of the Bank of Queensland from the premises – until the bank business moved to the newly refurnished Globe Hotel building in 2011.
The old bank building is now vacant.
Text sources include: Hoch, Isabel. 2008. Pages 43, 53, 124 Between the Bougainvilleas. 2004. Page 16 Barcaldine Historical Museum, W. Scott
