Our Stories

Helen McIntyre was truly a pioneer of the Australian credit union movement. She passed away in May last year at the age of 92. As a tribute to her, for historical interest and general entertainment Helen is the latest subject in our What Do You Think of the Association? series. Helen’s interview is four minutes…

The first customer owned bank in Australia is generally considered to be the Co-operative Credit Bank of Victoria established in 1905 by a group of public servants. The Co-operative Credit Bank of Victoria had its origins in the Civil Services Co-operative Society, which by 1906 had 7,000 members. It ran a large Melbourne co-operative retail…

Mission Statement Your community financial institution, providing caring and reliable quality services to the people of the Central West The above is the mission statement of Central West Credit Union as related in their history book Central West Credit Union Limited – 30 Years of Service 1966-1996. The book was compiled by Australian Mutuals Archives…

Reginald (Reg) Elliott passed away in February 2021 at the age of 87. Reg was a significant figure in the Australian credit union movement, being instrumental in the reforms of Project Renewal and implementing important change at the Association of NSW Credit Unions (ANSWCU) in the 1970s and 1980s. Reg’s obituary in the Sydney Morning…

This month Australian Mutuals Archives are celebrating our 40th Anniversary. We were pleased to have former Archives Trust Chairs Kaye Wetzler and Tony McNamara attend our recent birthday party (they are pictured above with Trust Chair Greg Stevens at the party). Here is a potted history of their lives in mutuals. Kaye started working as…

We’ve just turned 40! Read about our party, our history and see a couple of videos in our latest newsletter here

The second interview in our What Do You Think of the Association? series produced by the Association of NSW Credit Unions (ANSWCU) in 1990 features Nereida Matthews. Nereida’s career with customer owned banking spanned more than 35 years including time as a credit union Chair and General Manager. She was the first full time employee…

Since 1911 International Women’s Day (#IWD2025) has belonged to all who care about women’s equality. Celebrated on March 8, this year’s theme is Accelerate Action (#AccelerateAction). The customer owned banking sector can point to a history of being more inclusive regarding gender. Here are three profiles of women who accelerated action in Australian credit unions….

A couple of years ago we digitised a video made by the Association of NSW Credit Unions (ANSWCU) in 1990 that features over an hour of short interviews with credit union staff and directors. The heart of the interviews is the question what do you think of the association? We will bring you several of…

Income Tax Officers Credit Union was begun by a group of like-minded tax officers in 1958. The first deposit of $13 was made on 28 February 1958. The maximum loan at the time was $500 and the average wait time for a loan was 10 months. However, the wait shrank to two months within the…

“We were in a little converted house. One side of it was an engraver and the other side was us. It was very primitive. I had an old underwood typewriter which nearly broke your fingers as you typed on it. We had no equipment at all, we used the local printer. I used to type…

Remember Terry Donovan? No? Surely, you remember Jason Donovan? Perhaps some younger customer owned banking staff don’t know either but Jason was a huge star of TV, film and music and his father Terry was a significant Australian actor, now in his 80s. It is a measure of the reach of mutuals that in the…