The Bank of Australia was a failed financial institution of early colonial New South Wales.
[2] The first directors of the bank were: Thomas Macvitie (managing director), Edward Wollstonecraft, John Macarthur, Richard Jones, Thomas Icely, John Oxley, George Bunn, W.J.
[4] In September 1828, thieves tunnelled into the Bank of Australia in Lower George Street, Sydney and stole about £14,000, described in 2008 as "the largest documented bank theft" in Australian history (in relative values and expressed as a proportion of GDP).
[5] When investors responded to the depression of the late 1830s by the abrupt withdrawal of capital, leading to a chain of insolvencies, a number of colonial banks found that their unrestricted lending had sent land prices soaring as speculators borrowed to invest, especially in urban areas.
[6] A number of leading colonial figures lost their fortunes, with many taking advantage of the Insolvent Debtors Act 1841.