On April 4th the Whakatane Historical Society held its first “coffee and a chat” event for 2024.

We met at The Comm, where we started with coffee and a chat about the history of The Comm, which was originally the Bank of New Zealand, built in1917,

We also discussed some of the other early banks in Whakatane. We were then shown through the building and through the accommodation upstairs. This was originally the Bank Manager’s accommodation.

It has been converted into guest accommodation, and the original features have been very sympathetically preserved. There are also many old photographs of the bank throughout the building.