5 Pounds Bank of Australasia

The Bank of Australasia was a British-chartered institution operating in Australia and New Zealand, and by 1932 it was already in a prolonged twilight — it would eventually merge into the ANZ Banking Group in 1951. Notes of this period were issued under the bank's own authority but circulated alongside the Commonwealth's own currency, which had been regulated under the Australian Notes Act since 1910. Private bank notes remained legal but were taxed heavily, making late-series examples like this one increasingly rare in ordinary commerce.

De La Rue's involvement is consistent with the bank's long-standing London printing arrangements, reflecting that this was an institution always more comfortable answering to Threadneedle Street than to Canberra.