Bendigo Bank: East Gippsland Shire withdraws backing for Omeo bank agency

An impassioned plea from Omeo residents will be made to Bendigo Bank to keep its presence in the town.

Omeo residents will lobby the Bendigo Bank to maintain a presence in the high country town with an economic boom on two fronts pending.

Residents were this week delivered the news they had feared from East Gippsland Shire with the end to a $30,000 ratepayer funded subsidy to Bendigo Bank to keep its agency operating.

With a multimillion-dollar investment in mountain biking already underway in Omeo and the strong possibility a copper and zinc mine at nearby Benambra will reopen, attention will now turn to pressuring Bendigo Bank not to close.

Omeo Region Business and Tourism Association committee member Rhonda Manhire said the town needed more than the limited banking services available at its post office if Bendigo Bank shut its doors.

“We can only be resilient if we’ve got facilities and services available to us,” she said.

“We would be happy if the agency opened two days a week on say a Monday and Friday.

“We need some banking capacity in town to continue and we need the Bendigo Bank to come up and sell their products.”

The Mountain Calf Sales are held in March each year. Picture: Zoe Phillips

Community and sporting groups that require access to cash for annual events including the town’s mountain calf sales, show and rodeo would be among those also hit by the closure of the only face-to-face banking service between Bairnsdale and Bright on the Great Alpine Road.

Rod O’Connell.

Businessman Rod O’Connell said the town had investigated setting up a community bank, but the financial outlay was prohibitive.

“We had to raise $250,000 and we just couldn’t do it,” he said.

“There are banking facilities at the post office, but it’s very limited and can’t handle the cash that the banks can.

“The town is on the up with the bike track and people buying up anything that is for sale.

“We will do whatever we can to support Bendigo in making this service viable.”

The Bendigo Bank declined to comment as it awaited official confirmation from the shire that it would no longer subsidise the bank agency.