A Tribute to Reg Elliott

Reg Elliott brandishing NSWCUL’s “Credit Unions-Getting it Together” multimedia promo-kit in 1983 [AMH Collection]

Ben Woods, Assistant Archivist, Australian Mutuals History

Australian Mutuals History was saddened to learn of the passing of Reginald (Reg) Elliott in February of this year 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 in the NSW Credit Union League (NSWCUL) in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Reg’s obituary in the Sydney Morning Herald reads in part that, “above all, Reg loved his family – they provided him with everything he wanted. Family meant love, humour, small time chaos, bad jokes, challenges, reading recommendations, ethical discussions. And we always knew where Reg stood in those discussions. Always”. It also says that, “Reg was a sailor, a thoughtful reader, a snappy dresser and a dedicated runner and marathoner with his friend Richo”.

Reg was born and schooled in Parkes in the Central West of NSW (home of the famous telescope and the infamous Elvis Presley festival). He left school as soon as legally possible as it wasn’t his cup of tea.

After leaving school he secured a job with the Bank of Australasia in Parkes. The Bank of Australasia is today the ANZ Bank and Reg stayed with them for 27 years. He told Richard Raxworthy in the oral history interview from 1991 that is in our collection that, “my first job was making the ink, we never had adding machines. I even had a job chopping the wood for 8 fires. It was a different era”.

His stay at the Parkes Branch was only 6 months as he moved to Peak Hill, NSW and as he told Raxworthy, “from then I became a company person. I was on the move for the next 27 years”. His work with ANZ required regular moves around Australia’s capital cities and regional centres.

The work at what was to become ANZ was highly fulfilling to Reg. He told Raxworthy that, “I always enjoyed my career with the bank. I was certainly not a wounded soldier when I left. I thought it was a good job, I was successful at it and I thought very strongly that banks had a very positive role”.

So, why did he leave a company and an industry he was very fond of? He told Raxworthy that, “The rest of the family finally got sick of being nomads and since I’d been a part of building the system designed to create the new ANZ, I had a choice to make, I either had to get off the train in terms of mobility or secede from my ambitions”.

Reg was approached by employment agency Spencer Stuart on behalf of NSWCUL in the late 1970s. He was reluctant to accept the offer of the job with them. While he consented to his family’s wishes regarding leaving his role with ANZ it took him some time to agree to join NSWCUL. In his own words he said:

I think I would have been the most reluctant of employees because mentally I couldn’t contemplate making a move at that time particularly when I was already among the senior executives of ANZ to go to what I regarded as an infant or maybe even a maverick industry. So it was quite a sizable decision and they kept up the pressure on me for some three months and finally a good friend of mine suggested that I should at least come over to Sydney and see these people … I was very impressed with the people I met. They seemed to know what they wanted. They impressed me as having a sense of direction and a sense of determination that they’d be people worth working for.

He became NSWCUL General Manager/CEO in 1978. He joined the Australian Federation of Credit Union Leagues (AFCUL) in 1985 as CEO and oversaw the reforms of Project Renewal which included the development of CUSCAL and their engagement with new information technology and national regulation.

In 1998 CUSCAL presented Reg with a Distinguished Service Award. The awards were presented annually to “honour those individuals who have made tremendous contributions to the success of credit unions”. In CUSCAL’s tribute to Reg they listed the significant goals that CUSCAL and its predecessors realised under his stewardship:

• In 1984 CUFSAL was formed to provide a national facility for credit unions
• In 1985 credit unions were the first non-banks to use the banks’ EFTPOS network
• In 1989 Project Renewal was commissioned
• In 1992 Australia-wide AFIC legislation was enacted
• In 1992 CUSCAL and CUFSAL were registered as special service providers
• In 1993 CUSCAL became a principal in the new Australian Payments Clearing Association.

UK & US Credit Union Heritage

Ben Woods, Assistant Archivist, Australian Mutuals History

The British Credit Union Historical Society logo

Australian Mutuals History is a repository that preserves important records of the Australian credit union, building society and mutual banking industries. The archives include board minutes and papers, governance and business documents, AGM records, annual reports, newsletters, photographs, oral histories, film and video recordings, newspaper clippings, ephemera and artefacts. The collection is a culturally significant resource preserved for members of the financial mutual community, as well as external researchers and the general public.

The archives were started by the Australian Credit Union Historical Co-operative in 1985 and were aided by the Australian Credit Union Archives from 1996. The Australian Credit Union Historical Co-operative fell away in 2004 and Australian Credit Union Archives became Australian Mutuals History (AMH) in 2017.

Australia is not the only country with a credit union movement that has decided to preserve its history for the same reason that we preserve ours. In the English speaking world, there are institutions to preserve the history of credit unions in the UK and the USA.

In the UK, the British Credit Union Historical Society (BCUHS) was established in 2008 to “promote the history of credit unions across the UK”.

The BCUHS website (link here) states that:

The Society has gathered information and records from UK credit unions, credit union trade associations and individuals going all the way back to 1964. These records include documents, photographs, oral histories, video recordings and newspaper clippings. The archives are an important historical resource for credit unions, researchers and members of the community.

BCUHS has four stated goals, “Preserving the Past”, “Educating the Present”, “Enriching the Future” and “Promoting Unity”. To these ends they collect records of important credit union history with links to historical details on UK credit unions on their website.

BCUHS is owned by the Credit Union Foundation which also supports them by assisting with their program of oral histories called “Save Our Sound”. The Credit Union Foundation’s education program for “future credit union managers, directors and leaders”, called CU Futures is also publicised by BCUHS on their website.

The USA has a museum (website link here) dedicated to the history of that country’s extensive credit union movement. “America’s Credit Union Museum” (ACUM), is in Manchester, New Hampshire, on the site of America’s first credit union which began in 1908.

The museum declares that:

It is where the history of the credit union movement lives on. It is the only institution that collects, archives, preserves and displays evidence of credit union roots. It cares for and makes accessible to this generation and all generations to come, real examples of values, philosophy, struggles and successes of credit unions.

The museum is not only home to our remarkable ancestral artefacts, it is a distinctive tribute to the founders and leaders-their vision, their commitment and determination, their sacrifice and special triumphs. All of these made it possible for credit unions to be the viable and progressive movement we are today.

The obvious difference between ACUM and AMH is that as a museum it in part acts as a tourist destination where regular people come to look at historical documents, photographs and films for recreational purposes.

In 2018, the museum opened the CUNA Research Library on the site with the financial assistance of CUNA and other sponsors. The museum noted on the opening of the library that, “The physical and electronic industry research centre will make credit union history more accessible, while the additional exhibit space and upgraded conference facilities will enable credit union professionals, legislators and citizens to experience firsthand the unique role credit unions play in the marketplace”.

ACUM is sustained financially via paid memberships and donations from credit unions, individuals and business groups as well as being funded for specific projects such as in the case of CUNA (Credit Union National Association) sponsoring the establishment of a research library in its name.

Below is a great video produced by ACUM titled “The Beginnings of America’s Credit Union Museum”

The Helping Hand & The Return Visit

Ben Woods, Assistant Archivist, Australian Mutuals History

• 

The Helping Hand by Arthur Hamblin (1985)

Visitors to the Australian Mutuals History (AMH) office might notice two oil paintings on our walls that do not at first glance have anything to do with credit unions or mutual banks. No matter how hard you look at them you won’t find any evidence of mutual finance but they are connected to the Australian credit union movement and are not on our walls purely for their aesthetic value.

A little while ago a man named Geoff Grey called our office concerned that two pictures that were donated to the Australian Credit Union Historical Co-operative many years ago, might not be on display. Upon describing what paintings he meant we were able to tell him that we were looking at them on our wall as we spoke. As it is such a good story we thought we’d tell you about Geoff Grey and how the paintings came to be painted and how we came to have them on our walls.

In 1967, Geoff took up a role with the Federal Department of Health in Darwin after a stint in Canberra and before that he worked in his native Perth where he first became a credit union member. His first ever job was as a Patrol Officer in Papua New Guinea but that’s a whole other story …

After working in Darwin with a young family for a couple of years Geoff found himself Vice President of the local chapter of the Australian Clerical Officers Association (ACOA) – a trade union for federal public servants in clerical roles.

Geoff told Richard Raxworthy in an oral history interview held by AMH in 1994 that he became foundation Chairman of ACOA Co-operative Credit Society (NT) upon its formation in 1970 because he was “the only mug that would take it on”. He would remain in the job for 17 years.

The truth was that fellow union reps Ray Lanyon and Reg Wellard spoke enthusiastically about forming a credit union and Geoff’s knowledge of them from his current membership and his enthusiasm for its bill paying service meant he was an obvious choice for Chairman.

Geoff saw the credit union expand its bond to all public servants in the NT which came with a change of name to Public Service Co-operative Credit Society in 1976. Geoff retired from the public service and his credit union position in 1988.

Before the change of name to Public Service Co-operative Credit Society in 1976, Geoff and his team had award winning plans drawn up for a new head office. According to Geoff, it was constructed with the first commercial building license after Cyclone Tracy.

When the building was refurbished in 1985 after more space was required due to to the growth of the credit union, Geoff got the idea of asking Victorian artist Arthur Hamblin to paint two works to hang on the walls of the office. He knew Arthur was in Darwin because he’d seen new works of his for sale. The credit union board agreed to the idea and he took his plan to Hamblin.

The first painting, “The Helping Hand”, came about after Geoff told Arthur that he wanted,  “Something about a pioneer group crossing the river, getting stuck and a bullocky coming along with his team and helping them through and that was called, ‘The Helping Hand’. I just left it to him to do what he could and that’s what he came up with”.

Geoff added, “The second one I just said now, Arthur, the Helping Hand, he comes back after a year or so for a return visit and to my mind that is the member coming in, joining the credit union, getting a helping hand and as time goes on he comes back for more and becomes a part of the whole scene. So, that was the idea and I gave it to Hamblin and that’s what he came up with, which was absolutely brilliant”.

The Return Visit by Arthur Hamblin (1985)

Apparently, Hamblin was adding the final touches to one of the paintings on the morning they were unveiled in the new building. Geoff said, “Originally, ‘The Helping Hand’, was displayed in our then banking section, behind the teller counter. That was displayed there for everybody to see. The other one we hung up in the director’s office, in the upstairs area of our building.”

After Geoff left in 1988 he remained in contact with some of the directors, including Bill West, who went on to be a director at Australian Central Credit Union which merged with NT Credit Society (the successor in name to the Public Service Co-operative Credit Society). Geoff entrusted Bill with the well-being of the paintings when he left and Bill assured Geoff that he sent them to the Australian Credit Union Historical Co-operative (our predecessor) and that they were safely in our keeping.

We were happy to tell Geoff that the paintings are still on the wall of what is today known as Australian Mutuals History. Australian Central Credit Union is still around but doubtless most people know it by its trading name People’s Choice Credit Union.

Geoff Grey, ca. 1970s-1980s [from collection]

A Short History of Horizon Bank

Amanda Barber, Senior Archivist, Australian Mutuals History

The Illawarra County Council Staff Credit Union commenced in 1964. Initially the Credit Union was only open to employees of the Council. But this changed in September 1971 when family members were also allowed to join.

An early director Neville Daniel (picture below) talked about start of the Illawarra County Council Staff Credit Union in an oral history interview with Richard Raxworthy on 26 July 1990 (held by AMH). Neville remembered Stan Arneil, who had a role in helping the formation of credit unions in NSW, addressing an early morning meeting at 7am in the car park on a chilly July morning in 1964.

Also in the interview Neville said “I can remember the inaugural meeting … We got our Charter from the Registrar in December 1964 and we opened for business on 1 January, or straight after the New Year break, in 1965. We just did it with voluntary work.”

Neville Daniel, a founding Director [from collection]

The credit union expanded in the 1980s and 1990s through accepting a series of engagements from other credit unions – including Bega Valley Credit Union Limited (1980); Candelo Community Credit Union Limited (1982); Wollongong City Council Employees Credit Union Limited (1982); Illawarra District Hospitals and Ambulance Employees Credit Union Limited (1983); and Shoalhaven City Employees Credit Union Limited (1995). This expanded the membership numbers and coverage of the credit union.

To reflect this growth the credit union changed its name in December 1982 to Southern Counties Credit Union Limited. Then again in 1995 the name of the credit union was changed to Horizon Credit Union Limited.

Following this period of growth, Horizon Credit Union opened a new Administration and Services Centre in Wollongong. The February 1997 edition of Directions (the Australian Credit Unions Magazine) had an article on the opening and quotes the General Manager, Simon Whiteman, as saying “we wanted to build … a centre that was functional, cost effective and … a place where members feel comfortable doing business”.

Peter McLeod, Director (left) and Robert Lamond, General Manager (right) of Southern Counties Credit Union at a Credit Union Forum, c. 1990 [from collection]

In 2009 the credit union accepted engagements of Eurobodalla Credit Union Limited. In 2012, the long serving Director Peter McLeod left after an impressive 45 years of service (1967-2012). Another long serving director was Irene Bonella (1988- 2014), who continues to be involved in the mutuals sector through her role as a trustee of the Australia Credit Union Archives Trust. 

2019 was a significant year as Horizon Credit Union made Money magazine’s “Best of the Best” list for the year. It was Horizon’s Visa credit card, a low interest rate and no annual fee card, which came in at first place for best transactor credit card in the non-bank category.

2019 was also an important year as the credit union began trading as Horizon Bank, marking the start of another era for the organisation.

Pat Taylor – a short profile

Amanda Barber, Senior Archivist, Australian Mutuals History

Pat Taylor [from collection]

Patricia Claire Taylor served the credit union movement for nearly thirty years and held a number of key credit union roles.

Patricia, known as Pat, was born in 1935 and grew up in Kensington, New South Wales. She attended Sydney Girls High School. She first became involved with the credit union movement in 1968, more by chance than planning.

Pat’s first credit union role was part-time, when she became the only employee of the Gilbarco Employees’ Credit Union. Over the next five years this expanded to a staff of three people.

Later, in the 1970s, Pat worked with the NSW Credit Union League as a Field Officer and gained a reputation as a problem fixer. During the next five years she worked particularly in helping fix issues in credit unions which were struggling financially.

Pat was interviewed by Richard Raxworthy on 2 March 1994 (oral history tape held in our collection). In the interview she talked about her work and said

“Yes, well I started off as a Field Officer and then I think after a year or two the Stabilisation group was formed. I worked then with Geoff Cambridge in the stabilising of these credit unions that had funds injected into them to rehabilitate them through the Savings Protection Fund…I used to inspect them and make sure they were on the right track and look at their accounts and analyse the results that they were all going in the right direction. There would have been half a dozen to ten credit unions involved over a couple of years in that exercise. Eventually that became a fairly significant part of the League’s operations. It expanded and had more and more people in it and I ultimately became the Manager of the Stabilisation Section.”

In the 1980s Pat was appointed as executive officer of the Premier Credit Union, which had 20,000 members that were employees of hospitals and paramedical professionals. Later she was appointed chief executive of United Credit Union in Western Australia, at a time when the organisation was in financial difficulty and a supervisory committee had been appointed. Pat stopped all commercial lending and got out of a number of operations in Victoria. The credit union was able to eventually trade its way out of difficulties. 

Pat Taylor was recognised for her contribution to the credit union movement and she received an Award for Distinguished Services from CUSCAL in November 1996.

Pat Taylor receiving a CUSCAL Award for Distinguished Services from Sam Walters, 1996 [from collection]

The Antigonish Movement and Australian Credit Unions

Ben Woods, Assistant Archivist, Australian Mutuals History

From left, Clarrie Murphy, Father Moses Coady, Kevin Young at the CUNA Convention, Maddison USA, 1958 [from collection]

The contemporary credit union idea originated in Germany in the 19^th century. Though in practice credit unions are similar, initially there were differences in their grounding philosophy. One German pioneer, Herman Schulze-Delitzsch, was a legal scholar and was influenced by progressive liberal theories of the era.

Friedrich Wilhelm Raiffeisen, who is perhaps the most well-known historical credit union thinker in Australia, wrote a book called “The Credit Unions” in 1866 but came from a different philosophical background. Raiffesien was guided by a committed Christian outlook.

The Antigonish Movement were more ambitious in their aims. They saw credit unions as but one part of a potential “Co-operative Commonwealth”. This was a program for the whole economy that would see, “a parliament of co-operatives [which] would democratically link all forms of co-operatives, including retail co-operatives, farmer co-operatives, building societies, credit unions and other democratic associations, co-ordinating and directing them in creating a ‘middle way’, and countervailing the power of giant corporations and the state”. (Lewis, 1996). Like Raiffeisen, Antigonish groups had Christian ethics as first principles.

One of the fathers of the Antigonish Movement was the priest Moses Coady from the University of St Francis Xavier in Antigonish, Nova Scotia, Canada. The Movement is kept alive at the university to this day via The Coady Program of courses.

A Catholic priest from Sydney by the name of Jack Gallagher, visited the University of St Francis Xavier in 1952 where he learned about the “Co-operative Commonwealth” and credit unions from Coady himself. With the assistance of his older sibling Rose Gallagher he helped to start Antigonish inspired credit unions in Australia. There are in fact credit unions and mutual banks operating in Australia today that owe their existence at least partly to the Gallaghers.

In January 1993, oral historian Richard Raxworthy, sat down with Rose Gallagher in the office of the credit union that she and her brother helped found in 1951/52 under the influence of the Antigonish Movement.

Ms Gallagher detailed how her brother was influenced by Coady and the state of the world after the war. He and fellow members of the Lidcombe Catholic Workers’ Club wanted to do something practical for their community using the principles they’d learned about.

They began with Lidcombe Credit Union and soon had more going in Yass, Crookwell and Berrima. Father Jack’s tentacles spread out further and he was the inspiration behind new credit unions in Tasmania and Queensland as well. As far as other co-operative endeavours, Rose began the Housewives United Buyers – a co-operative for married women to help them with running a household. It co-operatively sourced and distributed fruits and vegetables and even furniture.

 Here is a snippet of Rose Gallagher’s interview with Richard Raxworthy in 1993 (transcript below).

‘The idea of the credit union is helping people to use their money well and to save it and only borrow for provident things. The main thing when we first set up the credit union was people being in the hands of money lenders and cash order people. They would spend up the limit then they would get another one, never ending. The interest on it was very high. So we used to encourage the people to bring all of their commitments in, like the things that they were paying off and that, and to take a loan to cover the lot and then in future to borrow only from their credit union. We straightened a lot of them out. People were often unaware of the high rate of interest that they were paying and the fact that they would never get out of it because it was big business.’

References

Lewis, Gary (1996), People Before Profit: The Credit Union Movement in Australia, Wakefield Press

Moody, J. Carroll & Fite, Gilbert C., (1971), The Credit Union Movement: Origins & Development, 1850-1970, University of Nebraska Press

Steve Birt’s Dedication to Credit Unions

Ben Woods, Assistant Archivist, Australian Mutuals History

Steve Birt, ca. 1980s [from Collection]

Steve Birt achieved a great deal in a life that was far too short. He had important roles with Earlwood Credit Union, NSW Teachers’ Credit Union, the NSW Credit Union League (NSWCUL), the Australian Federation of Credit Union Leagues (AFCUL), the Australian Credit Union Foundation (later CUFA), before he sadly passed away in 1993 aged 46.

Stephen Terence Birt was born in Newcastle, NSW on 3 May, 1948. He had finance in his blood via his father who was a banker. Steve initially became a teacher though, studying at Sydney University/Sydney Teachers’ College and working in NSW schools from 1968 to 1971.

His involvement with credit unions began while he was working as a teacher through his membership of Earlwood Credit Union. He became a Director of Earlwood CU in 1969 at the age of 21 and was elected Chairman of the Board in 1971. He remained a Director until 1976.

The pull of credit unions became so great for Steve that he left teaching for a professional career in the movement in 1971, where he used his teaching skills as the Development and Training Officer of NSWCUL. He left NSWCUL for the NSW Teachers’ Credit Union in 1976 and became Deputy General Manager there in 1987. Steve’s involvement with the Association of NSW Credit Unions saw him become President in 1986.

He was passionate about spreading the credit union word worldwide, believing credit unions can play a role in alleviating poverty.

With that in mind he joined the Australian Credit Union Foundation where he contributed in a number of capacities including to the curriculum and delivery of Development Education classes. Here students learned the fundamentals of credit union philosophy and practice and how credit unions can assist the less fortunate in developing nations.

1986 was a big year for Steve, he not only became President of the Association of NSW Credit Unions, as mentioned above, he was also made Vice President of AFCUL and appointed by the Minister for Business and Consumer Affairs in NSW to the Credit Union Advisory Committee.

Steve Birt & Tom “Mr Credit Union” Kelly, ca. 1990 [from Collection]

Much of what we know about Steve’s life and career comes from the oral history interviews he gave to the historian Richard Raxworthy in 1990 and 1991. Steve’s interviews are two of the most articulate and informative in our collection.

The following are some of Steve’s insights recorded by Raxworthy …

“I’d been given the job of organising and running education nights which were a feature of Earlwood Credit Union as a community group at that stage. We couldn’t get away with it these days but it was obligatory at that time to attend one of these education nights and be sentenced to listen to an hour and a half on credit unions and credit union philosophy before you were eligible to apply for a loan.”

“I have long held the view that the credit union movement could become the bankers for the co-operative movement …. We have for a long time operated as independent cells – the credit union movement, the building society movement, the friendly society movement and the broader co-operative movement … I think in the future there must be that opportunity for us to work together more co-operatively than what has been the case at the present time.”

“We can’t be everything to everybody. The first role of a credit union, rather than a bank, is to look after its individual members. The membership after all is the key group. I am interested in some of the things that we are talking about at the government level at the present time – such as regional development bonds which could assist in terms of regional development in particular areas of this state.

I read a recent report that said if we added just one process in terms of a manufacturing process to our raw wool before it was exported that it would be worth $16 billion to Australia in export income. We were talking with the Minister recently about a co-operative organisation being established, rather than a commercial organisation to do that first phase processing and the funding of that perhaps being made by the credit union movement on government guarantee.”

Our records hold several tributes to Steve Birt. One by his colleague Stuart Gillies sums him up nicely.

“Steve’s devotion to the cause of the movement, to its deep-seated philosophies and to its development, both nationally and internationally was, quite simply, incontestable, unmatchable.

Steve has left an indelible mark on the movement and many, many people in it. I am proud to have been just one of them.”

Richard Crosbie – A Professional Co-operator

Ben Woods, Assistant Archivist, Australian Mutuals History

Richard Crosbie was among the first generation of professionals from the “mainstream” finance industry to be recruited into the credit union movement. He lead significant reforms in the 1980s and 1990s, most notably CUSCAL’s Project Renewal.  

Crosbie was born in Birchip, Victoria in 1939 and raised on a farm. He was a bright kid and his family had aspirations for him to work in a bank and indeed that’s what he did after leaving school. His high school teachers told him he would be selling himself short if he didn’t go to university but in his late teens Richard lacked the confidence to do so. He told oral historian Richard Raxworthy in the 1992 interview held in our collection that at that stage university would’ve been too much of a “culture shock” for him.

He eventually went to university to study economics after two years of working in a bank before joining academia at Footscray Technical College which today is Victoria University. It was from academia that Crosbie was recruited into the credit union movement. He told Raxworthy that:

“Well there had been a very small credit union founded at Swinburne which was one of the colleges and they made a decision in the mid-1970s, early 1970s, that perhaps they had better extend it out to all the other ones. So one day I had a guy knock on the door and say that he was a Director of this credit union and they were looking for Directors from other colleges and somebody had given him my name. I said, ‘Oh yes, if it’s only once a month there is not much of an involvement,’ and I guess in one way or another it has consumed me ever since. So I was a Director of that credit union, still am a Director of that credit union. It is now a tertiary credit union, it was college and college staff.”

Richard remained Chair of Tertiary Credit Union for many years and soon took on other roles, including the Chairs of the Victorian Credit Co-operative Association (VCCA) and the Australian Federation of Credit Union Leagues (AFCUL) simultaneously.

The August 1982 edition of Australian Credit Unions Magazine featured a reproduction of a recent speech made by Crosbie at that year’s CU Convention. It prefigured what was discussed in the meetings of Project Renewal in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Crosbie began his speech by outlining the problems credit unions were facing:

“Loans for consumers are freely available outside of credit unions and are available on terms that are comparable with credit unions. In responding to these new market conditions, we in the credit union movement are finding it difficult to maintain adequate operating margins. At the same time, we are finding that our costs are rising”.

One of these costs was operating technology – something that is still relevant today and was part of the centralising drive behind Project Renewal. Crosbie went on to discuss these issues in his 1982 speech:

“A further challenge is coming from the fact that credit unions are now starting to share facilities – EDP, central banking, marketing, just to name a few. This sharing is very desirable on the grounds of efficiency.”

These technologies meant that it no longer made sense for each state to have a central body to look after high level, back office processing. Crosbie told Raxworthy that this needn’t be a concern:

“The members are not interested in the back office. How did you do that? Where did that go? Did that transaction go electronically via Darwin or Sydney, or whatever? As long as they get what they want down the other end”.

With financial legislation then being taken over by the federal government and applying to all financial institutions it also made sense for the advocacy functions of the state leagues to be centralised in CUSCAL, then in ABACUS and today in COBA.

Raxworthy ends his interview with Crosbie by asking him if there’s anything else he’d like to say. He responds with:

“After some time there should be interviews asking how it [Project Renewal] has all gone because as you say people were very apprehensive about it first up, it’s been running for a while now, it’s still a bit early to judge whether it’s worked, but long after I’m gone somebody can do an assessment on whether it has worked out. I think it was the most exciting thing I’ve been involved in [with] the credit union movement and despite a few problems and warts it’s still been of critical importance to the survival of credit unions and I don’t regret doing it”.

In 1992, Richard Crosbie was made an Officer of the Order of Australia for his services to the credit union movement. At the time Directions magazine noted his contribution to Project Renewal and his work, “to remove discrimination against credit unions in the financial system, with the remaining barriers set to fall on the implementation of the Wallis Inquiry recommendations”.

Among all this “modernising”, Crosbie was always keen to stress that credit unions maintain their mutuality in order for them to maintain their relevance. He ended his 1982 Australian Credit Union Convention speech on a poignant note and it doubles as a good way to close this profile of a committed credit union professional:

“The saying of the people who are strong on philosophy is – what are the things that you want to attain, and then demanding of the efficiency experts how to achieve what is wanted. It is far too easy for the efficiency experts to say, it is too expensive, get rid of it. The role of volunteers is to say that it is fundamental to what I understand credit unions are about. What I want you, my professional manager/efficiency expert to do, is to find a way of achieving it for me.”

CUSCAL executive, ca. 1990s – from left, Alex Sala, Richard Crosbie (CUSCAL President), Dr Vern Harvey (CUSCAL CEO)

Sam Walters – a profile

Amanda Barber, Senior Archivist, Australian Mutuals History

Photograph of Sam Walters, c. 1995 (from collection PH 904)

Samuel Brian Walters (9 January 1939 – 11 July 2005) was a notable figure in the South Australian credit union movement. Sam was born in South Australia in 1939 and went to the intermediate level at school. In 1954 he joined E S & A (English, Scottish & Australian) Bank.

Sam work for 18 years with the E S & A Bank (later ANZ Bank) and then AGC (Australian Guarantee Corporation), before he joined the then Postal Technicians (SA) Co-operative Credit Union in 1974. It later changed its name to Australian Commissions Credit Union. The credit union amalgamated in 1984 with the ABC Mutual Credit Union and became the Australian Central Credit Union.

Sam guided the Adelaide-based Australian Central Credit Union from 1974 until his retirement as Managing Director in 2000.  Under his management, Australian Central became the first credit union in Australia to reach $1 billion in assets in 1999. He encouraged his staff to place a high priority on understanding members’ needs and building relationships.

In a 1988 oral history interview with Campbell Laughton (held by Australian Mutuals History) Sam Walters said about credit unions that the “concept is everything we do is for the member”. It is the “co-operative working for people” and the benefit of credit unions is that “that they take out the profit taker in the middle”.

Sam was also active on the board of CUSCOSA (Credit Union Services Co-operative of South Australia), as well as serving as Chairman of the CUSCAL Membership Council.

In addition, Sam Walters was appointed chair of HomeStart Finance (established by the South Australian Government with the mission to ensure that home ownership remains attainable for low to moderate income households) in July 2001. Sam also contributed widely to the business sector in South Australia.

Sam Walters died on 11 July 2005 aged 66.

Photograph of Sam Walters (far right), John Auld and others at the Special School Awards (from collection PH 1236)

Ted Long – a profile of a co-operative pioneer

Amanda Barber, Senior Archivist, Australian Mutuals History

Photograph of Ted Long, 1979 (PH2249 from collection)

Ted Long was a dedicated and energetic exponent of the value of co-operatives and credit unions in Victoria. He was born in 1921 into a farming family at Knowsley near Bendigo and was educated at the local State School and later at St Patrick’s Ballarat.

As a young man he moved to Melbourne and was employed in the Commonwealth Department of Air. In Melbourne he joined the newly formed Young Christian Workers Movement (YCW) where he became not only involved in the many sporting activities available but moved through the ranks of the YCW to eventually become National President.

Ted took on the role of National Secretary in 1943, which meant he had to give up his public service career and abandon his VFL football pursuits (he played a few games with North Melbourne). At that time, the YCW conducted an inquiry into the economic needs of young workers and identified a need for financial support in the purchasing of homes and household goods and services. In 1948 the YCW Co-operative Trading Society was formed and in 1951 Ted Long took on the secretarial role. This Society would go on to provide household furniture and white goods, insurance and later school furniture and clothing.

Influenced by the work of the Antigonish Movement of Nova Scotia, the YCW investigated the issue of consumer finance co-operatives. As a result, the Young Christian Workers’ Central Credit Union was formed in 1952. It became the first co-operative credit society to be registered under the Victorian Co-operation Act of 1953 when it was registered as the Young Christian Workers’ Central Co-operative Credit Society in August 1954.

By 1957 three parish based co-operative credit societies along with the YCW Central Co-operative Credit Society had formed the Association of Catholic Co-operative Credit Societies (ACCCS) with Ted Long as its first Secretary. In 1965, after much deliberation, the ACCCS changed its name and constitution to become the Victorian Credit Co-operative Association. It was registered in 1966 with the aim of affiliating the majority of credit unions in Victoria whether based in industries, trade and professional unions, communities or parishes. The association acted as an advisory and representative body, and it offered a central bank function to its member societies, as well as insurance and a fledgling stabilisation fund.

Ted Long with friends at the Newport School 1965. From left to right Leon Magree,
Charles Compton, Ted Long, Carlos Matos, Joane Naisara (Fiji) (PH 1331 form collection)

Ted Long was a tireless advocate and traveled throughout Victoria promoting the formation of co-operatives in the 1950s and 1960s. In 1961, he became the foundation secretary of the Co-operative Development Society, formed to develop educational programs and promotional materials for all forms of co-operatives.

Ted was appointed to the Co-operative Advisory Council formed under the Victorian Cooperation Act. He was also a foundation member of the Co-operative Federation of Victoria formed in 1970. In 1992 Ted Long was interviewed by Richard Raxworthy (oral history tape held by Australian Mutuals History). In the interview Ted talks about his philosophy of co-operatives, saying “We viewed co-operatives as a means of making a contribution to the reform of society … If there was a proper mix of capitalism, socialism and this form of private enterprise which is co-operative, you would finish up, probably with a better society.”

Ted Long was awarded an Order of Australia Medal in 1984 for services to the community, especially in relation to Co-operatives. He died in 2008, survived by his wife Norine and seven of their eight children.

Ted Long’s pamphlet Helping Each Other Through Co-operatives, A.C.T.S. Publications,Number 1375, 10 August 1962 (from collection)