10 Shillings

Australia's first nationally issued banknotes, authorized under the Australian Notes Act of 1910, were a deliberate move to replace the private bank notes that had circulated across the colonies and states since the nineteenth century. The Commonwealth took full control of note issue, and the Treasury — not a central bank, which Australia would not establish until 1920 — was the responsible authority. These early notes were printed at the Melbourne facility of the Commonwealth Bank's note printing branch, making Australia one of very few countries at the time printing its own government currency entirely domestically from the outset.

The 1910 legislation also imposed a tax of ten percent on private bank notes still in circulation, effectively killing the competing issues within a few years.