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.
Spice Corner/nothing – Hurstville, NSW
It takes balls to turn a corner shop into something as specific as a SPICE CORNER, but that’s exactly what the proprietors of this ‘All Asian Condiments’ shop did.
It’s nearly impossible to read without actually being there, but the shop was indeed the Spice Corner. Even Trove can’t save this one – someone once sold a German piano out of this address. Amazing, right?
The clearest and most visually appealing evidence of its former glory lies here, on the side of the shop.
John B. White Surveyors/For Lease (UNDER OFFER) – Hurstville, NSW
Up at number 67 Kimberley Road is another 1926 monolith. It’s for lease, but it’s UNDER OFFER. Good luck…
…because as we all know, it’s the buildings John B. White & Associates Surveyors reject that make John B. White & Associates Surveyors the best. Once again, Trove appears to save us from apparent boredom:
Image from Sydney Morning Herald 6 Sep 1933/Trove.
LEASED!
Trinder’s Produce Store/Frontier Signs/Mixed Business/Nothing – Hurstville, NSW
Along the long and lonely Kimberley Road, Hurstville sit numerous husks of shops. A quick search on the amazing Trove reveals that today’s entry on Past Lives was once ‘Trinder’s Produce Store’, and was used as a voting location from 1930 to 1948.
Image from Sydney Morning Herald, 24 Oct 1930/Trove.
Built in 1926, no evidence remains of Trinder’s Produce Store. The shopfronts appear to have been out of business for years.
The awning reads ‘Frontier Signs’, but the sign itself has been fractured.
Oddly, there’s a very faint but still visible company name beneath Frontier Signs. It’s hard to read, but it certainly doesn’t say ‘Frontier Signs’. You’d think a sign company letting something like that happen would be like Dulux selling paint in Berger cans.
Past/Lives of the Near Future 