Broken Hill Community Credit Union has had a remarkably successful life in the financial industry in the far west of NSW since 1973. What is most remarkable about it is that in nearly 45 years of business, Broken Hill Community Credit Union hasn’t merged or changed its name!
Like the first “official” credit union in Australia, Universal Credit Union, the idea for the formation of Broken Hill Community Credit Union came from time spent in Canada. A miner named Bill Cederblad witnessed the strong credit union movement in Canada and brought the good news to Broken Hill.
The August 1998 issue of CUSCAL’s Directions magazine contained a profile of Broken Hill Community Credit Union including many fascinating statistics and morsels of information. For instance, at the time approximately half of the population of Broken Hill were members of the credit union making it the largest financial institution in the town.
The General Manager of the credit union in 1998, Derek Baker, attributed part of the ongoing success of Broken Hill Community Credit Union to its continued commitment to face to face customer service. Baker stated:
“We go out of our way to make it pleasant for our members when they visit us. Sure city financial institutions have all the technology but here it’s not really that necessary”.
At the time of the profile in Directions, Broken Hill Community Credit Union had just moved into the old premises of Broken Hill RSL in order to cope with their expanding business. Derek Baker offered other examples of the credit union’s success – namely, the ability to retain quality staff and a significant contribution to the local community outside of providing a first class credit union service. In 1998, Derek Baker had been in charge of the credit union for 16 years, the loans manager Andrew Pellizzer had been on board for 15 years and the office manager, Ann Grose had been on staff for 17 years.
