It is known as ‘the people’s bank’, ‘the community bank’ or simply ‘the Bendigo’. As Building the Village shows, the Bendigo Bank’s sense of social responsibility stretches back to 1858 and its roots on the Bendigo goldfield. Today, 150 years later, the bank’s future rests upon the close community relationships it has built up across Australia. Historian Alan Mayne tells the story of the bank’s developments, which parallel the building of Australia into one prosperous nation, and required overcoming many hurdles along the way, such as the protracted Federation drought, world wars, and the financial turmoil of the early 1990s.