BANK OF AUSTRALASIA (FORMER)

The former Bank of Australasia, at 23 Main Street, Stony Creek, designed by A & K Henderson and built in 1911, is significant. It is single storey weatherboard clad building with a half hip corrugated iron transverse roof to the former bank at the street frontage, with the residence contained in a wide gable projecting to the rear that extends to form a contiguous verandah on the south side. The walls of the former bank are clad in shiplap boards to door height, with a deep roughcast frieze above. The symmetrical facade features a central half-timbered and bracketed gable over the entrance, which is flanked by tall double hung windows with multi-pane hoppers set within the frieze. Other features in the building include deep boxed eaves, a sign panel above the door, double hung timber windows and three red-brick chimneys with deep rendered ledge moulds. There are slender fret brackets with Art Nouveau motifs as part of the residential verandah, and a side entry door to the residence under the verandah with multi-pane toplight. 
Non-original alterations and additions are not significant.

The former Bank of Australasia, at 23 Main Street, Stony Creek, is of local historic and aesthetic significance to the South Gippsland Shire.

Historically, it demonstrates the early development of the township and the importance of the Stony Creek Butter Factory, which influenced the decision to open the bank in Stony Creek. It demonstrates the early development of banking in the Shire and the role that banks played in the development of small towns. (Criterion A) 
Aesthetically, the former bank is a fine and well detailed example of a timber Federation style bank, which demonstrates the influence of the Queen Anne style and the skills of the architects, A & K Henderson. Of note are the battened gable ends, walls of ship-lapped weatherboards and roughcast frieze, tall windows with multi-pane colour glass hoppers, verandah details and ornate chimneys. It is an historic landmark within Stony Creek. (Criterion E)