After all, Mr Cullen was a miner and a credit union member in the early 1970s, and borrowed money to buy himself an airconditioner shortly after its formation. 

The Queensland Country Credit Union was created as a result of the Mount Isa Mines strikes of 1964-65. 

“So the unions and the mines got together as part of the negotiations to get back to work, that mining employees get some sort of credit,” Mr Cullen said. 

“Credit unions in Australia weren’t that popular at the time, there weren’t many of them but they were very big in Europe.” 

Mount Isa Mines offered $200,000 to the newly formed bank but only needed to lend $60,000. 

Within a few months the bank paid back the money. 

A few years after Mr Cullen joined as a member he was offered the position of loans manager, and over the years rose through the ranks to his current position.

Now there are 23 branches across Queensland, and strong financial results released at the bank’s  annual  meeting in Mount Isa on Thursday night revealed net profit of $13.284 million and total assets of $1.287 billion. 

Stakeholders at the meeting heard the bank’s new head office in Townsville was nearing completion but it did not mean the company disregarded its original branch. 

The credit union had a cake cutting ceremony at its Mount Isa branch on Saturday to celebrate its recent refurbishment. 

“Mount Isa is very well established, it’s got a very hard core membership to 8000 to 9000 members and it goes particularly well,” the chairman said. 

“I won’t say it’s the most outstanding branch we’ve got but it’s certainly up there with the best, and it’s probably individually the biggest branch with regard to member numbers.” 

But as chief executive Aileen Cull said, there was room for growth.

“We would like to have everyone in this town,” Ms Cull said. 

“This would be the biggest and best financial institution space wise and probably staff wise in Mount Isa.’’