129 regional places lost their last bank branch, APRA's register shows

An analysis of APRA's register ↗ identified 129 places outside its Major Cities category that had a bank branch in June 2017, none in June 2026 and no listed branch less than 5 km away in a straight line.

About 287,000 people lived in these places in June 2025, according to this study's estimates from ABS data.

In a submission to a Senate inquiry ↗, Dale Webster and Martin North reported 596 towns that once had one or more major banks but now had no form of bank at all. Webster's wider count starts from the branch lists of the big four banks' founding banks in 1975.

This study asks a newer, narrower question.

How far was the nearest branch?

Each distance is a straight line. It starts at the average position of the place's branches listed in June 2017 (most places had one branch) and ends at the nearest branch listed in June 2026. These are not distances from people's homes and not driving distances. The median distance (the middle value) was 28.5 km. Thirty places were at least 50 km from a listed branch. Lord Howe Island's distance is across the sea.

The nearest listed branch may belong to a different bank from the one that was last in the place. This study's distances are to the nearest eligible branch of any bank, credit union or building society.

About one in four residents of these 129 places, roughly 73,000 people, live in places where the nearest listed branch is at least 28.5 km away in a straight line.

Gracemere, near Rockhampton, had the largest population estimate, about 12,800 people. Redlynch (in Cairns) and Medowie (near Newcastle) each had about 11,600 to 11,700. Their order changes with the method used to share the grid, so neither is clearly second. About 37,800 people lived in the six city-edge places.

Redlynch is a special case. Its own branch was gone from the register by June 2019, but it joined the list only in 2026. That year a nearby branch left the register and the nearest branch became more than 5 km away.

A January 2025 Reserve Bank study ↗ found that most Australians' distance to the nearest cash withdrawal point had not changed much, largely because of Bank@Post and independent ATMs. It also found a growing number of communities without face-to-face banking services.

What banking services remained?

In June 2026, APRA listed Bank@Post counters in 118 of the 129 places. Bank-operated ATMs were listed in 32. Eleven places had no Bank@Post counter, bank-operated ATM or other face-to-face banking office listed under their own name. For four of them, a Bank@Post counter was listed in a neighbouring place less than 3 km away in a straight line. APRA's register excludes independently operated ATMs and online banking. Other banking options therefore remained in many places, even after their last branch disappeared.

Results by state and territory

Queensland had the most places on the list: 34 of the 129.

Chart 1 shows how many of the 129 places are in each state and territory. Queensland had 34, Victoria 25, New South Wales 24, Western Australia 21, South Australia 13, Tasmania 9 and the Northern Territory 3. The ACT had none.

Chart 1. Queensland had the most places on the list

But a count alone is not a fair way to compare states. The states started with very different numbers of country places with a branch. In June 2017, New South Wales had 195 such places; Tasmania had 49.

To compare states, Chart 2 shows a share. It starts with each state's country places that had a branch in June 2017. It then shows how many of them are on the 129-place list. It uses the same 5 km rule as the rest of this article.

Chart 2. Western Australia and South Australia had the highest shares

• Western Australia 21 of 84 country places (25%)
• South Australia 13 of 55 (24%)
• Queensland 34 of 171 (20%)
• Tasmania 9 of 49 (18%)
• Victoria 25 of 167 (15%)
• New South Wales 24 of 195 (12%)
• Northern Territory 3 of 26 (12%)

Queensland had the most places. But Western Australia and South Australia had the highest shares of their country places that had a branch in June 2017 and then met this study's rule: no branch in June 2026 and none listed less than 5 km away. The gap between those two is small: about 1.4 percentage points. New South Wales and Victoria have many places on the list, but a lower share.

State by state

Share is the same measure as Chart 2: places on the list, out of the state's country places that had a branch in June 2017. Estimated residents are this study's estimates from ABS data for June 2025.

Jump to: Qld · Vic · NSW · WA · SA · Tas · NT

No ACT locality outside APRA's Major Cities category had a branch in June 2017. Small state and territory totals can also change substantially when one place is added or removed.

NAB was the last listed bank in 49 places

Each of the 129 places had an eligible branch listed in June 2017 and none in June 2026.

In 49 places, NAB was the last bank listed before the place became branchless on the register. No other bank had more. CBA had 19. ANZ had 13. Bendigo Bank had 13. Westpac had 12. MyState had 6.

In four places, two banks were last listed in the same June snapshot. Those places count for both banks.

This does not show which bank closed the most branches. It shows which bank was last listed in each place before its final run of branchless June snapshots.

Find your town

Search by place, state or bank. Each distance is a straight line from the average position of the place's June 2017 branches to the nearest branch listed in June 2026. A ⚑ marks an entry with a caveat or special circumstance. Read its note before using the figure.

Search the 129 places

Showing all 129 places.

Swipe the table sideways to see more columns →

The CSV uses APRA's own place names. Source: APRA points-of-presence data (CC BY 3.0 AU) and ABS population data (CC BY 4.0). Rural Bank sites are not counted as branches. This is an analysis of APRA's register, not an official APRA count. To credit this work, see Cite this study.

Methodology and limitations

Eight places became branchless in the latest year

Eight of the 129 places became branchless on the register in the year to June 2026. Bendigo Bank was last in five, People First Bank (listed by APRA as Heritage and People's Choice) in two and Beyond Bank in one. None had a big-four bank as its last listed bank.

This was the first full June-to-June year after all four big banks had committed to a regional closure pause ↗. The register shows the changes but cannot establish whether the pause caused them.

This finding covers only these eight places on the list. It does not describe every place or branch in Australia.

This is self-funded research by Samiran Sengupta. I provide data research services to Digital PR agencies.

Cite this study

Samiran Sengupta, "129 regional places lost their last bank branch, APRA's register shows", 19 October 2026. https://samiransengupta.com/research/towns-that-lost-their-last-bank-branch/

Short credit: "Samiran Sengupta, Data Researcher, analysis of APRA points-of-presence data". APRA data: CC BY 3.0 AU. ABS data: CC BY 4.0.

Copy citation

Sources

• APRA, Authorised deposit-taking institutions' points of presence statistics ↗, June 2017 to June 2026 edition, released 14 October 2026.
• ABS, Regional population 2024–25 ↗ (population grid and SA2 estimates); ABS Australian Statistical Geography Standard, Edition 3.
• Senate Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport References Committee, Bank closures in regional Australia, Chapter 1 ↗ (Webster and North's 596 towns, paragraph 1.15; Webster's 1975 branch lists, paragraph 1.18).
• Reserve Bank of Australia, Anthea Faferko, Georgia Rylah and Faye Wang, Access to Cash in Australia ↗, Bulletin, 30 January 2025.
• Treasurer, Jim Chalmers, Securing regional banking services ↗, joint media release, 11 February 2025.
• Bendigo Bank, Update on network changes ↗ (branch closure dates in 2025).
• About Regional, Beyond Bank claims it is revitalising Riverina services while closing Ganmain branch ↗, 14 April 2026.
• Millie Costigan, ACM, Regional communities are frustrated by branch and ATM closures ↗, 3 May 2023.

A research example for Digital PR teams

This study asks which places lost their last eligible bank branch. Counting places answers a different question from counting individual branches.

The work brings together a downloadable place list, an interactive map and charts using one inclusion rule. The method explains how the distance threshold affects the results. Disputed register records are flagged and local population estimates are treated as approximate.

For an agency brief, I can develop the research question, analyse public data and prepare checked findings with a method note. Scope, fee and deadline are agreed before work begins.

Inspect the place list · Download the CSV · Read my research approach · Discuss a brief