National Bank, Queen and Creek Street, Brisbane, Queensland

National Australia Bank is a heritage-listed bank building at 308 Queen Street, Brisbane City, City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It was designed by Francis Drummond Greville Stanley and built from 1881–1924 by Southall & Tracey. It is also known as Queensland National Bank. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 21 October 1992 (Wikipedia). This building is now owned and occupied by the University of Queensland.

After purchasing the heritage-listed former Queensland National Bank in Queen Street in 2019, UQ is providing a unique alumni experience with the building being cleverly restored in a way that preserves its history, while creating innovative and collaborative spaces.

Gracing the historic corner of Queen Street and Creek Street is a fine piece of classic Italian Renaissance architecture—the Head Office for Queensland of the National Bank of Australasia.

It was on this site that Brisbane’s first School of Arts provided a cultural centre for the colony. However, in 1872 financial difficulties forced the school to sell its property for £8,000 to the Queensland National Bank, which united with the National Bank of Australasia in 1948.

The Colonial Architect, F.D.G. Stanley, was asked to design the new bank—this was his first large private commission. He specified that it should be built in brick with facings and columns of freestone. The foundation stone was laid in 1881 and the bank was ready for occupation four years later. The board room and principal offices are perfectly preserved examples of mid-Victorian opulence. In fact the whole place is an impressive product of a building boom born of unbounded optimism in Queensland’s future. It was this same opinion which transformed Brisbane from a frontier town into a colonial city.

Experts hailed it as one of the finest examples of banking architecture anywhere in the world. One contemporary visitor wrote: “No bank in Australia, and the Australian banks were patrons of architecture, had such an imposing façade. The noble colonnade that rose from the spacious balcony on the first floor amazed the few British financiers who visited Brisbane. The banking chamber, domed with stained glass and rich with polished cedar, seemed so magnificent that he wondered whether a customer would dare enter the bank with less than a £10 cheque.” (Newell, P. White, U (1967) Brisbane Sketchbook)