In 1850 Surveyor, Hugh Roland Labatt arrived in Maryborough with instructions to "examine the River Mary...to suggest ...the best site or sites for the laying out of the town, having regard to the convenience of shipping on one hand and internal communication on the other...also...point out the spots desirable as reserves for public building, church, quay and for places for public recreation."

Following close on the first discoveries of gold in 1867, the Bank of New South Wales established a branch in a portion of the Customs House Hotel at the corner of Wharf and Richmond Streets on 8 September 1868.

[1] The Bank of New South Wales remained in this temporary accommodation during the construction of their first purpose-built branch being a single storeyed building another of the corners of Richmond and Wharf Streets.

[1] As Maryborough expanded rapidly in the late 1860s and 1870s, a new, larger and more impressive branch of the Bank of New South Wales was planned in 1877.

Tenders were called for this two storeyed rendered brick building on 26 January 1877 by bank manager, George Ranken.

The building is surrounded on three sides by a double-storeyed verandah, with hipped curved awnings supported on cast iron columns on the first floor.

The faces of the building are divided into vertical bays by shallow pilasters between which there are square headed arched window openings.

[1] Internally the building is arranged from a narrow hallway accessed from one of the principal entrances at the south-western end of the Richmond Street elevation, in which a timber stair runs to the first floor.

In the original banking chamber in the eastern corner of the building, which has its own entrance centrally located on the Richmond Street elevation and features elaborate plaster cornice and ceiling rose.

The building is part of an important area, formerly the financial and judicial heart of Maryborough adjacent to the early port facilities.

Although the functions have changed over the years, the building has retained an important public role and is now the focus of historical research of the area.