Pyramid Building Society

The Pyramid Building Society, the Geelong Building Society and the Countrywide Building Society together made up the Farrow Group of building societies, based in Geelong, Australia. They collapsed in 1990 with debts in excess of $2 billion. The cost of the collapse to the Victoria taxpayers was estimated at over $900 million, causing a fuel levy of 3c-per-litre to be introduced by the Victorian Government to recover funds. The levy remained in force for five years. Pyramid was established in 1959 by Vautin Andrews and Bob Farrow, with a view to helping the city grow. Andrews was later mayor of Geelong and Farrow was an accountant and his firm managed the society. When legislation changed in the mid 1960s to allow building societies to...