The Bathurst District Local Government Employees Credit Union was registered on 3 February 1969 and held its first Board meeting on 18 February 1969. It was the first credit union established in Bathurst. The impetus to form the credit union came from a meeting in October 1968 between local government employees from the Bathurst City Council, Southern Mitchell County Council and the Turon Shire Council.
Like most early credit unions in Australia, the work of setting up and managing the credit union was undertaken by hard working volunteers. Fred Franklin, Chairman 1970-1972, talked about the early days of the credit union in an oral history interview in 1989 (a copy of which is held by us). In the recording Fred Franklin says that he had been on the Credit Committee and that a key objective was to “do our best to help everyone” and that “we were anxious to run for the sake of the members”. Fred Franklin also observed that by the end of the third year of operation the credit union had not recorded one bad debt.
In November 1972 the name was changed to Mid West Credit Union, this followed on from a special general meeting in August which resolved to change the name and broaden the membership bond to include all employee groups. This enabled the credit union to expand through amalgamation and in March 1973 engagements were accepted from Bathurst District Hospital Employees Credit Union Limited and Bradwardine (Edgells) Credit Union Limited.
Two other significant developments occurred in 1973 - new premises were purchased at 217 George Street Bathurst and the first full time manager was appointed in April. In his 1989 oral history interview Fred Franklin noted that the purchase of the new premises was enabled through a loan from the NSW Credit Union League.
In February 1976 the credit union accepted engagements from Bathurst Postal Staff Credit Union Limited. The membership continued to grow through the 1980s and by 1985 there were over 6500 members.
On 1 August 1994 the credit union transferred its engagements to Reliance Credit Union.
