Our Stories

Oatley is a tremendous spot in southern Sydney’s Georges River Council, just across the famous rail bridge from Como in the Sutherland Shire. It’s a leafy area on the water and a community credit union was begun there in the home of Kevin McGrath in 1963. On May 23, 1973, the St George Pictorial newspaper…

Baulkham Hills Community Credit Union was the twelfth community credit union formed in NSW and much of its early business was done out of a Volkswagen Kombi van. The 10 people present at the inaugural meeting at Lavalla Bowling Club in October 1967 were addressed by founding Chair Kevin Gleeson, who said: “Our Credit Union…

Bendigo is Australia’s 19th largest city.  As gold was discovered in Bendigo Creek in 1851, Bendigonians have long needed a place to stash their loot. Once upon a time they had their very own credit union … Bendigo Credit Co-operative Ltd was formed on 31 May 1971 from the merger of St. Kilian’s Parish Credit…

Starr-Bowkett Building Societies that is. I was at a birthday party recently and as happens at parties a new acquaintance asked me about my work. After hearing about Australian Mutuals History they told me about acquiring their first home loan through Newtown & Enmore Starr-Bowkett Building Co-op Societies. The office bearing the society name is…

Friendly societies have been around for a long time but they became popular during the industrial revolution and grew significantly in number in the 19th century.  They were mutual associations formed to provide for a specific purpose – such as funeral costs, life insurance, medical costs (sickness cover, pharmaceutical costs and hospital insurance) and pensions…

This video produced by Railways Credit Union in 2002 reveals much that is familiar but also much that is “history”.  The video begins with a Brisbane train going through the suburbs before the narrator riding the train tells us about Railways Credit Union before moving on to interviews with members and head office scenes ……

Orange Credit Union will celebrate its 60th anniversary in December. It was registered as Email (Orange) Employees Credit Union after forming during a special meeting of Email (Orange) employees in the staff canteen in December 1964. To celebrate their 50th year of operations in 2014, Orange Credit Union produced several short films featuring interviews with…