FinObservatory

Crisis atlas / AUS / 1889–1893

Australia, 1889–1893

One crisis episode: distinct crisis years merged across gaps of up to two non-crisis years. Types, source agreement, and macro context are drawn from the union of five primary chronologies.

CurrencyBanking

Crisis years in this episode

Every distinct (year, type) event inside the 1889–1893 window, with the chronologies flagging it and the count of agreeing sources. Start-year sources (GMD, JST) mark only the first year, so agreement falls in the continuation years.

  1. 1889
    Currencygmd, rr2 sources
  2. 1890
    Currencyrr1 source
  3. 1891
    Currencyrr1 source
  4. 1893
    Bankinggmd, jst, rr3 sources

Source: Global Macro Database 2026_06 (Müller, Xu, Lehbib & Chen 2025) | Jordà-Schularick-Taylor Macrohistory R6 | Laeven & Valencia (2020, 2026) | Reinhart-Rogoff via HBS BFFS | ECB/ESRB Financial Crises Database Methodology

Laeven-Valencia banking-crisis detail

This banking episode is not in the Laeven-Valencia systemic banking crises database, which covers systemic banking crises from 1970. The crisis is dated here by other chronologies (GMD, JST, Reinhart-Rogoff, or ESRB), none of which report a fiscal cost or output loss.

Macro context, 18821900

Seven years either side of the episode. Each panel has its own scale; the crisis window is shaded. Only indicators with data for Australia in this window are shown. Bank credit growth (year over year in total loans) is available for the 18 Jordà-Schularick-Taylor advanced economies.

Inflation (% y/y)
-10-50510188218891900
Real GDP growth (% y/y)
-10010188218891900
Govt debt (% of GDP)
0255075188218891900
Current account (% of GDP)
-15-10-505188218891900
Bank credit growth (% y/y)
-2002040188218891900

Source: Global Macro Database 2026_06 (Müller, Xu, Lehbib & Chen 2025) | Jordà-Schularick-Taylor Macrohistory R6 (credit) Real GDP growth is derived as the year-over-year change in real GDP; current account and government debt are percent of GDP; policy rate is the central-bank rate; bank credit growth is the year-over-year change in JST total loans. Methodology

How each source dates this episode

The chronologies disagree on start years and durations. This table is generated from the event rows, not curated: it lists, per crisis type, which source flags which years inside the window.

Currency
  • Global Macro Database1889
  • Reinhart-Rogoff1889, 1890, 1891
Banking
  • Global Macro Database1893
  • Jordà-Schularick-Taylor1893
  • Reinhart-Rogoff1893

Source: Global Macro Database 2026_06 (Müller, Xu, Lehbib & Chen 2025) | Jordà-Schularick-Taylor Macrohistory R6 | Laeven & Valencia (2020, 2026) | Reinhart-Rogoff via HBS BFFS | ECB/ESRB Financial Crises Database Methodology

Documented policy responses

7 interventions from the Metrick-Schmelzing banking-crisis database whose recorded year falls inside this episode window (1889–1893). Each row is one documented government or central-bank action, tagged with the database’s own intervention categories and short code, under the crisis code it assigns. Matching is exact: same country, intervention year inside the window. The database’s global-crisis rows (no country) are never matched here.

AUS-1893Australia
  1. Mar-1892GuaranteesBG
  2. Apr-1893GuaranteesAG
  3. Apr-1893OtherOther
  4. May-1893LendingAHEL
  5. May-1893Regulatory forbearance / rulesORL
  6. May-1893RestructuringBAIL
  7. May-1893Regulatory forbearance / rulesSBH

Source: Metrick-Schmelzing Banking-Crisis Interventions Database (Yale Program on Financial Stability) Cite as: Metrick, Andrew, and Paul Schmelzing, "Banking-Crisis Interventions Across Time and Space," working paper, 2024 (dataset consulted 2026-07-10). License: Creative Commons attribution. Methodology

Policy-response case studies (external)

For qualitative accounts of how authorities intervened in systemic crises, see the Yale Program on Financial Stability New Bagehot Project, a library of financial-crisis intervention case studies. It is a separate qualitative resource; no specific case is asserted to match this episode.