Commercial Bank of Australia Limited - Banknotes
The Commercial Bank of Australia Limited was established in Melbourne in 1866. After a period of slow initial growth, the Bank's management instituted an aggressive expansion policy which saw it absorb the Australian and European Bank Limited in 1879, the Town and Country Bank in 1886, the Mercantile Bank of Sydney in 1890 and the National Bank of Tasmania Limited in 1918.
A single design type was used on notes issued at branches in Adelaide, Hobart, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney. The bank merged with the Bank of New South Wales in 1982 to form the Westpac Banking Group Limited.
The design on the bank's note issues is interesting because of the inclusion of Chinese characters.
In 1911, the bank was one of 16 banks who supplied blank note forms to the Australian Government. These notes were superscribed as redeemable in gold and issued as the first Commonwealth notes.
