These savings accounts were transferred to the Walcha Court House late in 1912 when it became known that the newly formed Commonwealth Bank would exercise its right to have the nation’s post offices act exclusively for it as banking agents.

The Tamworth Daily Observer of December 24, 1912, said alterations to the Court House office of Walcha’s Clerk of Petty Sessions would be made since “Mr. Holland has found his small counter makes it rather awkward to attend to Land, C.P.S. and Government Savings Bank business”.

It was not until after World War II that the Rural Bank decided to open a branch office at Walcha with a report in the Walcha News of December 24, 1948, saying: “A branch of the bank will open here on January 17, 1949. It will be situated in temporary premises in Conomo’s brick building in Derby Street.”

Justin King recalled buying his original pharmacy at Walcha early in the 1950s: “My pharmacy was directly opposite the Apsley Hotel with Conomo’s White Rose Café on one side and the Rural Bank, then managed by Mr. H.S. Incher, on the other.”

The café is now offices for the Amaroo Land Council while Conomo’s brick building is now occupied by Fun Clown’s.

The building shown in the photo was purpose-built for the Rural Bank and was officially opened by the Walcha Shire Council president G.R.N. Gill on April 28, 1958.

On November 2, 1981, the Rural Bank was renamed the State Bank of NSW and, on December 31, 1994, the bank was sold to Colonial Mutual, which saw it renamed the Colonial State Bank. It was again renamed in 1998 to become the Colonial.

On June 13, 2000, the Commonwealth Bank completed its merger with the Colonial Group. On May 4, 2001, the facility became a single-site franchise of the Commonwealth Bank. It is now a conventional Commonwealth Bank branch.