The Queensland Teachers’ Credit Union was the first financial institution in Australia to introduce a 24-hour ATM at a retail outlet in 1977, preceding the banks by three years. It was situated at Garden City at Mount Gravatt, a Brisbane suburb.
The credit union, formed in 1965, had 23,000 members and $37 million in assets by 1977. As an alternative to credit cards such as Bankcard, the Credit Union wanted cash to be available in shopping centres.
The innovation followed studies by the credit union of the latest practices in the US and Europe. The new ATM was an NCR Self-Service Financial Terminal. The credit union installed ATMs in other major department stores and eleven other Queensland credit unions joined the Queensland Teachers’ ATM network.
The credit union established in May 1978 the first interstate ATM link between credit unions with credit unions in South Australia and the ACT joining the network. The Queensland Teachers’ Credit Union eventually became the QT Mutual Bank in 2011 and merged with the RACQ (Royal Automobile Club Queensland) to form the RACQ Bank in 2017.
For further details, please see Lewis, G. 1996, People Before Profit. The Credit Union Movement in Australia, Kent Town, Wakefield Press.
