Memory Lane: Looking back at when Australian bank tellers had guns

Kevin Greenaway, who spent 23 years with the CBC bank in Victoria and NSW, tells about the days when all bank branches kept guns.

He said every teller had to keep a loaded .38-calibre revolver under the counter, where it could be easily reached in case of a hold-up.

Kevin said he couldn't see the logic in it: if a robber was pointing a gun at him, wouldn't he be at risk reaching for his weapon too?

The bank also required staff to be familiar with the weapons, so firing practice routinely took place.

"We would place a target on a tree in a remote place and take turns at firing the revolver. The target usually was quite safe as the revolvers were wildly inaccurate.

"As most tellers then were teenagers, the bank was effectively arming a lot of very young people," Kevin said.

He said that when transporting cash outside the branch some young blokes used to make the weapon very visible to all the world by handing it back and forth.

"We enjoyed the look on people's faces," he said.

Kevin vividly remembers one particular incident.

"After a visit to a local school to do banking for the children, the staff involved left the box on a table in the branch with the revolver on top.

"A young girl, who was a very new staff member, picked up the weapon and apparently thinking it wasn't real, pointed it into the box and pulled the trigger. Bang!

"Oh my God! Luckily, she had pointed it into the box and not at anybody in the office as the bullet went through the box, through the desk and two drawers, finally lodging in a thick ledger in the bottom drawer.

"I was the accountant at that time and I had to run out to see what had happened and as the young girl was hysterical with fright.

"I had to hold her until she calmed down. I can assure you she never touched a revolver again."

Kevin, who joined the bank at the age of 15, had a remarkably well-travelled career. He was transferred several times and was attached to the relieving staff in Melbourne and Sydney. He moved 99 times and worked at 79 branches before he left the bank in 1976.

He said he was lucky: in all that time, not once did he experience a hold-up or have to use a gun in a real-life situation.

But he probably prevented a crime the day he spotted a shifty-looking character outside the branch.

To be on the safe side, he called the police. As their car came near, the man got up and decamped. When the law caught up with him, a loaded pistol was found on his person.

Thanks for a beauty, Kevin.

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