Looking back at July 31, 1951
Installing a vault in a Wollongong CBD bank was obviously a big operation.
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In 1951, the Mercury reported that the Commonwealth Bank were installing a new 90-tonne vault, which was expected to take a few weeks.
On July 31, workers began a two-week process of lowering the vault from the ground floor into the basement.
The vault was five metres by four metres with a height of three metres and was built with reinforced concrete 45 centimetres thick.
Four hydraulic jacks were being used to move the massive vault down to the basement.
The story also mentioned the size of the linoleum tiles to be placed on the floor of the bank (43 square centimetres) and that the whole place will be airconditioned - which suggests those things were a bit of a big deal in 1951.
All the heavy lifting and linoleum laying wouldn't get in the way of business - savers could still make deposits on the ground floor.
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