Perth Building Society was Western Australia’s first building society[1]. It operated from 1862 to 1987, when it amalgamated with the Hotham Permanent Building Society to form Challenge Bank[2].
PBS was founded by WA Attorney General G.F. Stone, Lt. Col. J. Bruce, Adjutant General W. Knight, Rev. G.P. Pownall, Magistrate H. Wakefield[3] and Joseph Thomas Reilly[4].
It proposed an earlier merger in 1981 with Bendigo Bank, but Bendigo customers and shareholders opposed the move[5].
Bryce Moore’s history of the Perth Building Society was published in 1989 [6]