ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the period from 1945 to 1975, which was a “golden age” for co-operatives in terms of the number and variety of co-operatives. The quest for finance to fund personal loans and housing led to a spectacular growth of credit unions and terminating building societies with legislative encouragement by state governments. There was a general decline in the number of consumer co-operatives. While agricultural co-operatives peaked in the early 1950s, there was a consolidation of co-operatives, particularly in the dairying sector, and an expansion of fishing co-operatives. There was a surge in community co-operatives with school-based fund-raising committees in Victoria and registered clubs in New South Wales. Two waves of interest occurred during this period to establish co-operatives to provide services to Indigenous communities. While there was a strengthening of state and national co-operative organisation by the 1970s, financial co-operatives developed their own organisations.
