Australia’s Cash Deserts

Thousands of residents in West Australian town Kununurra must undertake a 500 mile journey to access banking facilities following the closure of their last bank, and they’re not alone.

As reported on digital economy news site The Daily Hodl, Kununurra was once served by multiple branches and ATMs provided by Commonwealth Bank, National Australia Bank and Westpac. All have now withdrawn, citing staffing and security issues, amid ‘an industry-wide trend of reducing physical locations.’

Local supermarket Coles became the main source of physical currency, offering a cashback option, but this has now been suspended due to ‘overwhelming demand.’ While Australia Post offers basic everyday transactions—including cash deposits and withdrawals—there are daily limits. The closest bank is now 500 miles away.

Yahoo! Finance quotes Coles as saying: ‘We understand this is a challenging time for the community, however, we are not operationally equipped to handle large volumes of cash.’

The town’s struggles are representative of a growing problem in Australia, with around 420 bank branches nationwide closing in the year to June 2023, including 122 branches in remote areas. In addition to being less likely to have other branches available—leading to ‘cash deserts’—these areas often have slower and less reliable internet, making cashless transactions undependable, as discussed by Dr Angel Zhong of The Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology.

Yahoo! reports people are now calling for government action to preserve access to cash, such as that recommended by Ireland’s Department of Finance and being implemented in cities and states across America. Meanwhile, cash deserts are expanding. Alongside Kununurra’s struggles, a resident of Latham (around 200 miles north of Perth) says he made an 80-mile round trip to a bank, only to be told he could not withdraw cash, and a Brisbane resident was denied a cash withdrawal, being told ‘tellers had no access to cash’.