History

The Bundaberg Regional Art Gallery has a unique history. The building started life as a Customs House in 1902. From 1921 onwards the occupant of this historic buliding was the Commonwealth Bank. During the banks occupancy, several changes were made to the buildings architecture which included the installation of two fully secure, concrete bank vaults armed with heavy combination locks - used today as the Gallery's collection storage facility and the Vault installation space.

In July 1978, the bank, the bank moved to Sugarland Shopping Town and in August of the same year, the Bundaberg City Council purchased the building to house Bundaberg's first free public library service. Having outgrown the space, the early 1990's saw the library re-locate, and in 1996  the building became the Bundaberg Arts Centres -which it remained until 2009.

In early early 2009, the Bundaberg Regional Council together with the Bundaberg community endorsed the re-development of turning the former Bundaberg Arts Centre into a regional art gallery, a process which included not only a name change, but major refurbishments of the building both inside and out - establishing the Bundaberg Regional Art Gallery as the regions cultural hub.

Images: (left to right) Customs House 1902, Commonwealth Bank 1921, Bundaberg Library 1978, Bundaberg Arts Centre  2003, Bundaberg Regional Art Gallery 2009.