Printed subscription receipt – Bank of New South Wales

Founded in Sydney on 8th April 1817 and launched under the governorship of Lachlan Macquarie, the Bank of New South Wales was the first bank in Australia. At the time, the colony of Sydney had not been supplied with currency, instead barter and promissory notes were the payment methods of choice. Governor Macquarie himself used cattle and rum as payment for the construction of Sydney Hospital and the road from Sydney to Liverpool. In February 1817, seven directors of the bank were elected: D’Arcy Wentworth, John Harris, Robert Jenkins, Thomas Wylde, Alexander Riley, William Redfern and John Thomas Campbell. Campbell was elected the bank’s first president and Edward Smith Hall its first cashier and secretary.

This document, along with a bank share certificate, represents the earliest known documentation relating to the formation of Australia’s first bank, the Bank of New South Wales. In 1982 the Bank of NSW became the Westpac Banking Corporation.