Although the ANZ ATM will remain in town, the customer service branch will close making the closest branch 250km away, in Charters Towers.

ANZ General Manager for Queensland, Tony Tapsall confirmed the branch would close down at 2pm on Wednesday, October 18. 

“These decisions are never easy but it has been made due to the number of customers using the branch,” Mr Tapsall said.

“A lot more people are using the ATM and digital and mobile banking so they are not using the branch as much as they use to – only about 15 percent of our customers come into the bank.”

Mr Tapsall said they were looking at offering the two full time equivalent staff jobs in other locations and customer accounts would be transferred to Charters Towers.

“But there is multiple ways our customers can bank, the ATM will remain there and we have an agreement with Australia Post so our customers can use the post offices in Hughenden, Richmond and Pentland where they can deposit up to $5000 cash and they can take out up to $1000,” he said.

Flinders Shire Council Mayor, Jane McNamara, said the bank would close on October 18 to allow customers time to decide if they would stay with ANZ or change banks.

“This change will leave us with only a NAB bank and Commonwealth agency,” Cr McNamara said.

“It is very unfortunate the way this news all unfolded because ANZ have a protocol they need to follow and somehow this information was leaked into the community.

“So I felt for the staff last week, as they had to deal with angry customers, because they found out through the grapevine.”

Member for Mount Isa Robbie Katter said the ANZ closure is just another example of big corporations focusing on profits rather than customers, services and communities.

“We are talking about a company that reported a first half year cash profit of $3.4 billion just a couple of months ago.”

“I think that big corporates like ANZ have a social responsibility to provide services to towns like Hughenden, even if that particular branch doesn’t generate a lot of money,” he said.

Mr Tapsall denied ANZ were withdrawing from regional areas.

“We’ve 24,000 Australian agricustomers and we are investing in regional Australia with $55 million committed in new funding for commercial and agricultural customers which feeds into regional Queensland through Seeds of Renewal grants to start up businesses and other community programs,” he said.

Mr Tapsall said they would support Hughenden customers through the transition.

“They are encouraged to come in and make sure their transaction accounts, cards and PINs are up to date,” he said.

Cr McNamara and Mr Katter have approached other banks to see if they would be interested in opening a branch in Hughenden.

Bendigo Bank was the first approached but they will also be contacting Suncorp this week, along with other banks.