ANZ turns Oxford St branch into a queer wonderland for Mardis Gras

By WIll Gray

Yes, the above picture is the inside of ANZ’s Oxford Street branch.

About half an hour ago I was wondering down Oxford Street and was suddenly stopped by a Liberace-inspired Rococo wonderland that had seemingly popped out of nowhere.

It was, in fact, ANZ’s Oxford Street branch, which over the weekend was completely refurbished and turned into “GayNZ”. The branch now features to over-the-top GayTMs, a marble wall, 16 hand-painted murals inspired by the queer community, a marble floor and even a sculpture of the two gay Danish penguins.

It’s all really, really, really gay. In the best possible way.

Chair of ANZ’s Australia Division Diversity Council Mark Hand said: “Diversity, inclusion and respect is an important part of what we do at ANZ so we are particularly proud of our partnership with Mardi Gras which started because our staff passionately believed in supporting the cause 10 years ago.”

“Over the past few years we have had an incredible response to our GAYTMs, so it was only natural to take things to a new level to celebrate the milestone. GAYNZ is often used to describe us at Mardi Gras and we thought transforming the Oxford Street branch and naming it GAYNZ was a fitting way to demonstrate our continued support for the LGBTI community.”