The announcement comes as Junee’s biggest employer, the Junee Correctional Centre, will create 130 new jobs. Junee isn’t the only town to be affected with the branch in Jerilderie also set to close.

Junee’s branch on Broadway Street will be closed on November 9 this year, leaving just the Commonwealth branch in town.

Locals will be forced to drive to Wagga if they need to do any banking face-to-face.

“We are losing the human face and that is the sad part,” Junee Shire Council mayor Neil Smith said.

“It is a reflection on technology and the direction we’re going as a society.”

Former senator and Junee farmer Bill Heffernan picked up on the closure before it was announced.

“Junee deserves to know that they are going to shut the bank on November 9,” he said.

Mr Heffernan said he was trying to get the logic behind the closure from head office.

“It is a great shame to lose the personal relationship with the banker,” he said.

“A lot of people like personal contact.”

This will be the second branch the town has lost with the Westpac bank closing its branch in 2000 before moving into the supermarket until 2015 and then into the post office.

ANZ customers will be able to access services at the post office and the ATM. Staff from the branch will be supported by ANZ to be redeployment to other locations.

“It potentially uproots people if they are not willing to travel,” Mr Smith said.

“It will be more people gone from the community.”

An ANZ spokesperson said the company will “making every effort” to find new positions for the staff. 

“It was a difficult decision to close the Junee branch,” the spokesperson said.

“Only about 23 per cent of our Junee customers mainly use the branch now, about 56 per cent of them use internet banking. We are in the process of contacting our customers by letter to inform them of the closure.”