More than 250 people gathered like David taking on the might of Goliath. No sling shot was to be found, just passionate hearts from a hurting community, and a microphone. Event organiser, Andrew Gibbs, gave a passionate speech to the crowd as he expressed the disgust and injustice of the decision by the Bendigo and Adelaide Bank to close 16 agencies, including Pyramid Hill, Cohuna and Barham.
The crowd shouted for their voices to be heard and carried signs of frustration that yet another bank is forgoing genuine service to be just another number down the phone line or lines of code on their web browser.
Cheryl Watts conveyed the feelings of so many at the rally.
“I’m just so frustrated and angry and annoyed with this.
“At the agencies, you are a person, they know your name, they talk to you by your name. Go to another bank – number 56, number 23, number 47. You’re just a number. You’re not an actual person. All the big banks care about is profit. What happened to the community bank that was for the community? They are now saying the community to go to hell, we don’t want to know them.
“We’ve been here almost five years. There were four banks here when we came; the Commonwealth closed, the ANZ closed, the Bendigo Bank closed the bank, got an agency. There’s only the part time NAB there now.
“Where are people supposed to go to do their banking? What are the shopkeepers supposed to do? The people that have bank books – what are they supposed to do? They say the post office is going to do it – is the post office going to be able to handle all these different things?
“My husband lost his card in the ATM a couple of months ago. We went into the bank, applied for a new card, got that, and it said to ring up this number. We ring that number. No, you can’t do that. You can’t do that. You can’t do that. In the end, we said, ‘What the hell is going on?’ So, we came down to the bank, went in and the girls there fixed it up. And it’s not a problem.”
Many expressed the risk that small businesses face as people are forced to travel out of town and take their shopping along with it.
“I’m very disappointed. It’s bad for the town and the businesses. People are going to go to Kerang or Echuca and they’re going to spend their money over there, and our town’s going to go backwards,” said Pam Farrant, another disappointed bank customer.
“I’ve started doing internet banking. I got scammed recently and I went straight to them (the agency) and they fixed it all up. What am I going to do? Spend money on fuel to go to Kerang or Echuca? You can’t do that over the phone [fix the scamming], you’ve got to do it in person.
“We don’t want to lose it.
“How are the shops and clubs going to get on with getting cash?”
Member for Murray, Peter Walsh, expressed to the crowd how disappointed he was in the bank’s approach going for straight closure with no engagement or alternatives sought.
This article appeared in The Koondrook and Barham Bridge Newspaper, 20 April 2023.
Related stories: Community rally as agency to close; The better big bank abandons communities.
