State Bank/Vinnies – Hurstville, NSW

State Bank, Hurstville, 1986. Image from Hurstville Council.

The State Bank of NSW started life in 1933 as the Rural Bank of NSW. In 1982 its name was changed to the State Bank, and in 1994 was sold to Colonial. The Colonial State Bank carried on until 2000, when it was taken over by the Commonwealth Bank. For the unenlightened, CommBank love money to the point where they’d take it from a posse of old women hawking old Burt Bacharach cassettes and Queen Elizabeth II memorial coaster sets…

Former State Bank, 2012. The clock wasn't working.

The building still sports a safe, and one of these:

For midnight deliveries of bulk lots of X-Files VHS tapes.

Vinnies are pretty thorough with their signage, but there’s always something to give it away. Observe:

Dot your i's, Vinnies.

If by Hurstville you mean a building appropriated for at least the second time hawking things nobody wants on a one-way street then yes, this truly is Hurstville.

4 responses

  1. I like that they removed ‘State Bank’ but kept ‘Hurstville’ because they figured, well, it’s still Hurstville, right? Why bother removing another 10 letters if they’re still technically true?

  2. Does anyone remember the gun shop just a few shops down (approximately 49A Treacy Street)? I bet that establishment being open gave the State Bank staff warm and fuzzy feelings on a daily basis.

    1. Hi, the gunshop Western Firearms was and still is our family business. The bank was out landlord and while never called upon we would of been happy to take on any bank robbers. That branch of the State bank was Glenn Mcgrah’s first job when he hit the big smoke of Sydney.

  3. An appropriate metaphor for the decline of Hurstville

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