JUST like the fictional Tasmanian town of Mystery Bay, a star in its own right in the hit ABC TV series Bay of Fires, Queenstown, where much of the show was filmed, is being held back by mysterious forces.

BENDIGO Bank closed its last remaining banking service in an Aboriginal community 27 days before celebrating the launch of its Aboriginal Reconciliation Action Plan. The Aurukun agency in far north Queensland was one of 27 to be closed in 2022-2023 under the eye of the bank’s now chief executive Richard Fennell when he was in charge of the corporate and community branch network.

BENDIGO Bank has pulled out of fundraising partnerships with community groups that have been drumming up business for corporate branches since 2004.

BENDIGO and Adelaide Bank has continued its assault on its community bank network, forcing the closure of 28 agencies run by community franchises. All the agencies are in regional Australia and 17 of the affected towns will be left with no banking services after the closures.

BENDIGO Bank has hit the headlines for closing 10 branches shortly followed by an announcement it was getting rid of all of its regional agencies but there are another 90-odd Bendigo-branded banks that have disappeared over the past five years it has managed to keep quiet.

WITH the announcement that Bendigo Bank is closing two of its regional branches at Yarram and Korumburra this week, it’s time to again call bull#%*t on the claims this corporation makes about the size of its branch network.

ONE of the most important Federal Government inquiries into welfare issues specific to regional Australia in decades handed down its final report a year ago this week.

WHEN does a bank cease to be a bank? Seven months ago, at a hearing of the Federal Government’s House Economics Committee in August 2024, Labor MP Tania Lawrence attempted to ask ANZ Bank chief executive Shayne Elliott about ANZ refusing to accept cash at the counter from customers.

The Federal Government has published a proposal for a cash mandate that will only apply to a legislated list of “essential” goods and services and give express permission to more than 97 per cent of businesses in Australia* to refuse to accept cash.