page_title: Gympie Stock Exchange
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Gympie Stock Exchange / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Gympie branch of the Australian Joint Stock Bank, ca. 1871 Bank clients and staff outside the bank. Gympie is a city in south-eastern Queensland, situated on the Mary River about 162 kilometres north of Brisbane. Gympie is the centre of an important dairying and agricultural district. In the early days timber was a significant industry.
context_page_description: Gympie Stock Exchange is a heritage-listed former bank building and former stock exchange at 236 Mary Street, Gympie, Gympie Region, Queensland, Australia. It was designed by Francis Drummond Greville Stanley and built from 1881 to 1882. It is also the former Australian Joint Stock Bank and the Neilson, Stanton and Parkinson Building. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 15 April 2011.
context_section_description: The former Australian Joint Stock Bank (AJSB) and later Gympie Stock Exchange building is a single storey rendered brick building in the classical style, plus a basement. Located in upper Mary Street, Gympie, it was designed by leading Queensland colonial architect Francis Drummond Greville Stanley and built in 1881-1882 for the Australian Joint Stock Bank as its permanent Gympie branch. Between 1902 and circa 1922 it functioned as the Gympie Stock Exchange Offices and Club.
  Gympie (initially known as Nashville) was established after the discovery of gold in the Mary River district in October 1867. The new goldfield turned Queensland into a significant gold producer, contributing much needed finances to the young colony. Thousands of people arrived at the Gympie goldfield in the months after the discovery and a fledgling settlement emerged. In a year the alluvial gold had been exhausted and shallow reef mining commenced.
  As Gympie evolved from a hastily established mining settlement, the early makeshift structures of the 1860s gradually gave way to more permanent and substantial public and private buildings from the mid 1870s. With the change to deep reef mining from 1875, came the need for extensive capital investment through the formation of companies using foreign as well as local capital. During 1881, mines began yielding large amounts of gold, marking a new era of wealth and prosperity for Gympie as an intensive phase of underground reef mining began, facilitated by the injection of capital into mining companies for machinery and employees. The influx of money and the resultant yield of gold were reflected in the redevelopment of upper Mary Street during the 1880s and 1890s with substantial commercial buildings such as banks and company secretary and brokers' offices. Several fires - in 1877, 1881 and 1891 - razed the earlier timber buildings and accelerated this transformation. A fire in August 1881 destroyed all of the buildings between Patterson's brick store and the Bank of New South Wales (242 Mary Street), leading to construction of more permanent masonry buildings in western side of upper Mary Street. One new building was that of the Australian Joint Stock Bank constructed during 1881 and 1882.
  The Australian Joint Stock Bank was established with the discovery of gold in southern colonies in 1852 and opened branches on Queensland goldfields as they were discovered, including a branch at the Gympie goldfield on 10 March 1868. By 1878 the AJSB wished to establish a permanent branch in the town and purchased two adjacent town allotments (allotments 5 and 6, Section A) for this purpose in late October and early November 1878. The building designed for this site by architect FDG Stanley is in the neo-classical style befitting an organisation wishing to project stability, reliability and longevity. After seeing the plans, the building was described by the Gympie Times as "a very handsome brick building of two - or more correctly speaking - of one storey and a basement. The lower portion will be used as a record room, and the upper floor adapted for offices etc, the front being adorned with a handsome portico". Andrew Collins was contracted as the builder and the building cost approximately £1,400.
  The bank's architect, FDG Stanley, arrived to Queensland in 1861 and was employed by the Lands and Works Department in the Queensland Colonial Architect's office from 1863 until 1881. The last eight years of his service were as Colonial Architect and as such he was the longest-serving of all Queensland's Colonial Architects. His principal building in this capacity was the Supreme Court Building in Brisbane (demolished). Thereafter Stanley worked in private practice until his death in 1897. His work was prolific and he produced many important buildings including the Queensland National Bank in Brisbane, the Holy Trinity Church and Rectory in Fortitude Valley, the Queensland Club in Brisbane and the Brisbane General Post Office. Among his regular clients were the Queensland National Bank, Australian Joint Stock Bank, the Un
caption: Australian Joint Stock Bank, Gympie, circa 1871
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