Westpac closes Potts Point branch ending 206 years of local banking history

Opinion By JOHN MOYLE

At 1.00 pm on March 23 the Potts Point Westpac branch will close its doors for the final time, ending a 206-year-long connection with the area.

Situated on Macleay Street, which is named after former Colonial Secretary Alexander Macleay, the bank was formed in premises leased from Mary Reibey in 1817 by a group of colonial high flyers, and was originally known as the Bank of New South Wales.

Names around the table that day included Wentworth, Harris, Wylde, Redfern, Riley and Campbell, remembered in street names and suburbs across the inner city.

At the time the colony did not have its own currency, instead payments were made with promissory notes, rum or cattle.

The fledgling bank’s connection to Potts Point came about when it employed Joseph Hyde Potts (1793-1865) as its first accountant.

Potts would identify with the area for much of his life, and up until recently there was even a cafe in Llankelly Place called “Jospeh Hyde”.

Before his arrival in the colony, the area now called Potts Point was known as Paddy’s Point or Woolloomooloo Hill, and was centred around the 22 hectare Macleay Estate and the windmills operating around where Roslyn Street is now situated.

In less than15 years Joseph Hyde Potts would rival Alexander Macleay for prominence in the area, when he acquired 64 acres from Judge Advocate John Wylde and would remove any reference to its Aboriginal or short lived Irish past by renaming it Potts Point.

By severing its links to the Potts Point area and its customers, many of whom have banked with the company for their entire lives, Westpac has now obliterated its own history.

About the closure, a Westpac spokesperson said “Changing and declining customer use of branches means that in some instances, we may make a difficult decision to close a branch.”

These difficult decisions must be getting easier to make as Westpac have scheduled 20 closures for New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria and South Australia, while also factoring in 2,667 jobs to be cut.

Branches close across Australia

Since January 2021 around 225 branches across Australia have been closed.

Last financial year the bank posted a $5.65 billion profit, up four per cent, while costs were down 19 per cent.

Not bad considering that many branches were closed during the COVID lockdowns.

Westpac now says that it has “over 5 million digitally active customers” and has redirected its analogue customers to branches located in Double Bay and Town Hall.

Meanwhile it has also been busy pulling out its ATMs, with the nearest in the area now being a Precinct ATM located 500 metres away at 82-94 Darlinghurst Road.

A recent announcement from Westpac said that its Newtown branch would also close this year.

Not bad for a bank that has “Helpful, Ethical. Performing, Simple and Leading Change” as its core values.