ACUA and the Oral History Collection The Oral History collection of the Australian Credit Union Archives (ACUA) began in May of 1983, evolving out the shared interest of a small, dedicated group of volunteers who were all founders or early participants in the Australian credit union movement. With guidance from the National Library they began recording interviews in an attempt to preserve the movement s early spirit and development. In 1985 they formed the Australian Credit Union Historical Co-operative which expanded the project with the engagement of a professional oral historian, Richard Raxworthy. Over the following 20 years the collection grew to over 650 recorded interviews documenting the formation and development of individual credit unions, and credit union industry and representational bodies nationwide. The Australian Credit Union Historical Co-operative The size and depth of the oral history collection will present future researchers with a valuable record not only of the corporate voices of the credit union movement, but of the attitudes, values and stories of an entire like-minded generation of twentieth-century Australians. The selection of excerpts that follow demonstrates how the collection also serves to illuminate the foundational values of the credit union movement: this group of credit union evangelists believed strongly in the principles of cooperation and mutuality, and worked tirelessly to establish and promote the fledgling Australian movement. The Historical Co-operative also began collecting the early material and records for what would subsequently form the holdings of the Australian Credit Union Archives (ACUA), established in 1996. The Archives collects and preserves official records such as board meeting papers and minutes, constitutional documentation and annual reports, in addition to personal records of archival value which we facilitate the use of for research and educational purposes. ACUA is currently undertaking a project to professionally digitise the oral history collection to ensure both long-term preservation and access to these important interviews. This project is intended to not only assist current day research into Australian credit unions and the credit union movement, but also to facilitate research of the collection far into the future. Interviewer Richard Raxworthy
Kevin Yates Kevin Yates, interviewed by Gary Lewis in 1984, was exposed to credit unions whilst training with the RAAF in British Columbia, Canada during the Second World War. In October 1946 Yates formed the first credit union of the modern Australian movement, the Catholic, Thrift and Loan Co-Operative, later renamed the Universal Credit Union Co- Operative in 1948. It was considered the first true credit union because it was formed directly from the deposits of its members. Here is Yates on key themes for co-operative developments and the credit union movement: On the beginnings of Universal, Yates discusses contacting the Antigonish association for assistance, and how they got started: So we virtually had to start off from scratch and we got in touch with Antigonish and they very kindly sent us some printed matter. We had to get and design our own passbooks, take out some loans to get the feel of things. And those twenty two members and approximately 30 dollars, or 60 dollars I should say, 30 pounds, grew into a very worthwhile and profitable operation. I would say the basic theme was a better social order. The average man getting more from life than he was getting prior to co-operative developments. More for your money you might say, better quality ofgoods andservices. And on the enthusiastic efforts of the early credit union promoters: We rushed around to various parishes, gave talks, sometimes to just a couple of people. I remember one incident at Penshurst I think there was a family of a man, his wife and a couple of children and a dog that is the only audience that I had to speak to... So we just carried on. As I say the enthusiasm was most infectious and you really had to be involved in the movement at that time to realise the amount of energy and keenness. The word got around too, as they use it in America, there were a lot of credit union widows because the boys were out not only actively participating in the credit union activities but charging around the countryside trying to get other groups to start credit unions. Yates went on to found AFCUL in 1966 and is widely considered the founder of the modern Australian credit union movement.
Rose Mary Gallagher Rose Mary Gallagher, another movement pioneer and sister to Father Jack Gallagher, was interviewed by Richard Raxworthy in 1989 and 1993. Gallagher, on the common bond and the hard work required establishing and promoting fledgling credit unions: You see you had to have a bond, you have to have a community of interest in those days. It has broadened a lot now. But you had to have a community of interest. It is the only way. I don t think that many of them would know, like the ones that are running them at the present time, they wouldn t be able to set up a credit union, they wouldn t know how. I tell you it is jolly hard work and it is months of work. We used to be out at night at discussions, running discussions for at least three months before it was set up. Running rallies at the weekend. The people were all really enthusiastic, they were very keen. Then there would be other occasions you know, like practically every weekend you had to go somewhere because one of them was having a get-together or a rally or something. They were great days and I enjoyed them very much. And on the basis of the credit union movement and its development in Australia: 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 ofinterest that they were paying and the fact that they would never get out of it because it was big business. Gallagher was involved in the establishment and operation of many early credit unions, including Lidcombe Credit Union, formed in Sydney in 1952.
Tom Kelly Movement pioneer Tom Kelly was interviewed by Gary Lewis in 1984, and by Richard Raxworthy in 1986, 1990 and 1996. Known as Mr Credit Union, Kelly joined Universal in 1949; by 1957 he was Chairman. Kelly, on his beginnings in the movement and motivating principles: What started you with the credit unions?' Well I d always been interested in the social principles that the Catholic Church put up and I d read a lot about them and when I was in the army people I associated with, felt we had to do something better when the war was over. On Universal Credit Union as the first of the modern Australian movement: Universal Credit Union, what was different about them, were they one of the earliest, are they, or not? Yes, it was. It is generally regarded in the Credit Union Movement as being the first true credit union. There was a number of thrift and loan societies and small loans societies established in the country, most of them were sort of related or offsprings of building societies or friendly societies and they got advances of money from those organisations rather than raising funds from their members. But Universal asked its members to supply the money themselves, and that was the job we had of convincing people to join up and save with us and borrow from us. And on staffing matters, the spirit of volunteering and co-operative ideas: When you first joined the Universal Credit Union, what was your impression of the people, what sort of staff did they have working there? Well, there was no staff, it was all done on a voluntary basis. We used to go in after work and on weekends and do the work, so it was the directors themselves who did all the work in those early days. They eventually did appoint a Manager, the first credit union to have a Manager, Norm Tracy, Norm threw his job in, he was a foreman in some little firm, and we opened an office at 333 George Street Sydney, which also had a cooperative store in it at that time and I was a member of that cooperative store, as was Kevin Yates and Bill Egan, so that I was getting filled with cooperative ideas all these times. Kelly continued his involvement with the cooperative movement forming the Railways Staff Credit Union in 1966. Between 1960 and 1972 he was a Director of the NSW Credit Union League, and in 1966 he convened the inaugural meeting of AFCUL. In 1985 he was cofounder of the Australian Credit Union Historical Co-operative and was it s voluntary secretary-manager for 18 years.
Don Closs Don Closs, interviewed in 1991, was a sports broadcaster with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Closs established more than 15 credit unions in Tasmania. Closs, on his first contact with credit union ideas: When did you first hear about credit Unions? Oh well I was in the ABC and in 1958 I was with the ABC Staff Association, I was their secretary. Des Gibson, who was the President ofthe Staff Association, rang me one day and he said, Don, I have got a note from a chap in Sydney and Charles Moses has given his approval. He is going to come down to Hobart and tell usabout Credit Unions. Credit Unions, what are they? Never heard of them. He said, Well he knows all about them. He said He started one in Sydney and he feels that he would like to start one in Tasmania as an experiment to see if it will really work. Closs would later meet with Stan Arneil, another of the great early promoters of the movement: And Stan came into Hobart, I met him at the airport, and he said to me, one of his first words, What do you know about credit unions? Nothing Stan He said, well you soon will. That s where it started. Stan gave me the message, he came out home, he had tea out home.... So I said. All right Stan, well I think what we will do is we will send it to the membership. And we did. We sent it to the membership and I became very enthused about it. I suppose because of my background in the trade union movement meant that I was looking after other people and their membership worries and problems, with a result that I felt that this credit union was definitely something. Stan Arneil Closs experiences in the movement also illustrate some of the more unusual stories found within the collection. On his experiences at the 1968 World Congress in Texas: The following year, of course, was the big year. It was the year I took the two Tasmanian Devils to Dallas. Whose idea was that? That was Glenn Addington. He was the PR Man who was in Dallas in Texas when we had the Congress in Dallas the year before. Glenn thought up the idea and said, Look, have you got tigers in Tasmania, what about sending us over a couple of Tigers? I said, Well they are extinct, I said, we haven t got any, we don t know if there are any alive. Still don t know. So he said, well what have you got? I said, Well we have got Tasmanian Devils. Oh he said, well that s just as good. So he said, let me know, see if you can get a couple of Devils to bring back next year. After negotiating the many bureaucratic hurdles Closs eventually received special dispensation to take two Tasmanian Devils out of the county for donation to the Dallas Zoo. He arrived to a tremendous welcome in Texas in May of 1968, and was given a key to the city, a six gun salute and huge media attention. It was a story that he would dine out on for years.