An administrative mix-up appears to be at the heart of a letter from the ANZ Bank to the Pentland Race Club that has caused its executive hours of concern and extra work.
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In mid-February, the club's treasurer Karenne Forster received a letter from ANZ's customer account maintenance team stating that in accordance with the terms and conditions of its business transactions accounts, it was "exercising its discretion to shut down the club's business classic cheque account, effective 17 March".
It continued by saying the club would have to make alternative arrangements for any direct debits and credit, and that the bank wasn't responsible for any fees made on the club's behalf.
The startling news came with no explanation and sent the committee into a tailspin.
"It wasn't signed and we thought it was a scam at first, and took it into our Charters Towers branch, but they informed us that it was indeed true and they had no other information to offer," Ms Forster said.
The club races once a year, in November, and decided that the best solution would be to switch banks but even that wasn't simple, as they required an explanation from ANZ in order to prove no fraudulent activity had resulted in the account's closure.
That wasn't forthcoming, and ANZ offered no explanation to media enquiries, saying it didn't comment on individual customers.
According to Ms Forster, an ANZ team leader then contacted them on Tuesday morning to say the closure letter had been sent out automatically because the club was classified as being in gambling services.
"Apparently the right questions weren't asked of us," Ms Forster said.
"I explained that of course, as a race club, we have a gambling service but we receive no income from gambling, only from running the race meeting. I assured him we had no pokie machines.
"He has agreed to cancel the closure of our account, if that was agreeable to us."
She said the club would now be holding a meeting to decide whether to continue banking with ANZ.
"It's been very upsetting - we can't get over the rudeness of it all," she said. "Our cheques were being cancelled - it was all so discriminatory, and we had no idea why."
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Sally Gall
Based at Blackall, CW Qld, where I've raised a family, run Merino sheep and beef cattle, and helped develop a region - its history, tourism, education and communications. Get in touch at 0427 575 955 if you've got a story idea for me.
Based at Blackall, CW Qld, where I've raised a family, run Merino sheep and beef cattle, and helped develop a region - its history, tourism, education and communications. Get in touch at 0427 575 955 if you've got a story idea for me.
