For a town with a current population of 500 this is a substaintial bank building, however the reason for its existance is due to the discovery of gold at Gabriels Gully just a few kilometers up the road, this no doubt drove the need for a substaintial bank to receive the gold that the miners found. At the height of the rush Lawrence had a population of around 11,500 which to put that in perspective it was twice the size of Dunedin. We are talking around 1860 - 1870.
Bank of New Zealand was originally established in 1861 with the first branch opened in Auckland in October 1861 followed quickly by the Dunedin branch in December 1861. This decision to establish a presence in Dunedin would I suspect been almost entirely driven by the Gold Rush here in Lawrence and the associated commercial activitiy that this kicked off at the nearest port, namely Dunedin. It is also interesting to note that it was not long after this in 1872 that BNZ opened a branch in Melbourne with this Melbourne link being a recurring theme of the commercial activity of these times.
These days with the previously mentioned population of 500 Lawrence has no BNZ branch and this building is now a cafe, catering to passing motorists on their way to and from central otago as exemplified by the motorcycle group in the photo.
Great looking building.
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