‘If a movement for economic regeneration, or any other movement, is to have a chance of succeeding, it must arise within the very heart of the people’ – Alphonse Desjardins. Excerpted from an article in L’Action Sociale, May 12, 1908 It’s been a while since we had a look at some mutual history from around the world so here is a short history of ...

Open Access - A History of Australian Co-operatives 1827-2023 In fantastic news for the advance of knowledge and the promotion of co-operatives and mutuals in Australia, the recent book by Greg Patmore, Nikola Balnave & Olivera Marjanovic titled, A History of Australian Co-operatives 1827-2023 has been granted open access for research purpos...

Here the Archives Newsletter No. 29 here....

  Australian customer owned banks have had an association with Bridges Financial Services since 1985. The above newly digitised 16mm film of ANSWCU’s (Association of NSW Credit Unions) May 1988 video newsletter discusses ANSWCU’s and the Australian Federation of Credit Unions Ltd’s (AFCUL) acquisition of a 50% share in Bridges. The film hosted ...

Moving north of the border after our 1970s VCCA video from a fortnight ago, here is a small collection of TV ads promoting “Credit Unions” in the final few years of the Association of New South Wales Credit Unions (ANSWCU) before it was abolished in 1992 to be replaced by the national system overseen by CUSCAL (and today COBA). We have spliced t...

We are pleased to present digitised film of short interviews from the late 1960s with two of the most important people in the history of Australian customer owned banks. This film is part of our collection of 16mm films that we have just digitised rendering them accessible now and into the future. We are not sure who made the film as the paper t...

We think you’ll like this short film produced by the Victorian Credit Co-operative Association (VCCA) in the 1970s. It features scenes around Melbourne, exteriors of Beechworth Credit Co-operative, transactions in a credit union branch, family life and begins with some older archival vision. This newly available footage comes to you thanks to ou...

Every mutual that’s ever gotten going can tell a great story but NACOS Credit Union General Manager Phil Lynch’s interview in October 1999 offers some real food for thought. Northern Areas [Whyalla District] Community Credit Union Society was registered in 1970 to serve the Whyalla region of South Australia. It expanded its bond and changed its ...

Gavin Cook at Dandenong Credit Union event, April 1986 Last week we shared glimpses of a recent record donation from Great Southern Bank which included hundreds of fantastic photos from the 1970s and 1980s of Dandenong Credit Union in particular, but also Berwick Credit Union. Among the images one face regularly appears and it is labelled here ...