A new bank in 1880s Brisbane needed a solid, impressive building and a ‘pleasing and interesting’ event to lay its cornerstone. The Queensland Deposit Bank arranged a formal ceremony, with a silver trowel to symbolically ‘well and truly lay’ the corner stone, under which were placed current newspapers and gold coins. Kevin Lambkin tells the story behind the trowel which was elaborately engraved by an apprentice of Brisbane jeweller, the Goldsmith’s Hall Company. After the ceremony, 600 ‘influential citizens’ enjoyed a ‘cold collation’ at the Columbia Skating Rink.