Our History

let's grow together!

Wide Bay Australia has its roots in several regional Queensland-based building societies that were created to provide low-deposit home loans and needed competition to the banks. The formation of these societies meant many people could finally afford their first home...

Founder of the Burnett Permanent Building Society in 1966 (and Managing Director of Wide Bay Australia Ltd today) Mr Ron Hancock says “As we obtained funds, we had a queue a mile long of local people trying to get into a house on 10% deposit - it hadn’t been heard of before. As $10,000 or $20,000 was invested we were able to take some more loan applications and it just kept on growing from there.”

The next exciting chapter began in 1979 when Burnett Permanent merged with the local Maryborough Permanent Building Society to form Wide Bay Capricorn Building Society.

In 1981, Wide Bay Capricorn also amalgamated with the Gympie and North Coast Building Society. Then again in 1983, another merger occurred with the Gladstone-based Port Curtis Building Society.

Wide Bay Capricorn continued to foster the aims of its predecessor societies established to co-ordinate the joint savings of members to foster home ownership in the community. As a result, funds under management grew strongly as did the loan book, as we made home ownership more achievable for thousands of people by providing affordable, low deposit home loans.

As a result of our history, we enjoy solid support in Central and South-East Queensland - and benefit from the diversification of economies and opportunities.

We have also built on this foundation - offering a broader range of banking and financial services and operations which extend through the greater part of regional Queensland and into Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide.

Wide Bay Capricorn listed on the Australian Stock Exchange Limited in 1994 and our shares have traded strongly since then - reflecting our record of growth and profitability.

In 1997, Wide Bay was one of the first unrated non-bank financial institutions to use securitisation as a liquidity management tool. Since this date, Wide Bay has increased its securitisation program to include two "securitisation warehouse facilities" that enable the Society to finance mortgage loans on an ongoing basis. In August 2000, Wide Bay and SG Australia Ltd launched the largest "AAA" rated high LVR mortgage loan securitisation in the Australian market and was very well received by investors.

Securitisation has enabled Wide Bay to access the Australian capital markets and achieve funding at very competitive rates.

In December 2003 our name was changed to Wide Bay Australia Ltd - reflecting our growth and positioning in the financial services market.

In 2008, Wide Bay Australia took over the ASX listed Mackay Permanent Building Society Limited.

Significant Dates