Buckley & Nunn's first store was a drapery store in a wooden building, 9 ft (2.7 m) by 30 ft (9.1 m), with a yearly rental of £250. The next few years saw great expansion and Buckley took larger premises for £3000 a year and bought the land for £22,000, acquiring a Bourke Street frontage of 27 ft (8.2 m), soon extended to 162 ft (49 m) with a depth of 300 ft (91 m) to Post Office Place. In 1859 Buckley gave evidence to the select committee on the tariff. At that time he was employing 20 women and importing most of his goods through Dalgety. In the 1860s he established direct communications with the main British firms, and the store made annual profits of about £40,000. In 1866 Buckley helped to found the Commercial Bank of Australia.