Gary Davis in Griffith promoting his new book. Photos: Oliver Jacques.
A 75-year-old author is touring the Riverina and South Coast to promote his debut novel – Pitt Street Bankers – a fictionalised account of how financial institutions crippled families with a foreign currency loan scheme in the 1980s.
Gary Davis grew up on a farm in Lismore before taking up his first job, in the banking sector. He learned the tricks of the trade before becoming a solicitor and helping those who fell victim to sinister financial practices.
“We came across five Australian families in the 1980s who were caught up in a banking scheme that went awfully wrong,” he said.
“The Reserve Bank put some heavy restrictions on lending, so to circumvent that, Australian banks started lending farmers and small-business owners money in foreign currencies. It was also a time when interest rates were very high – 18 to 24 per cent.
“So the banks would give you a Swiss Franc loan for 6 per cent. They went out there into the marketplace and pushed these loans on our farmers.
“The banks didn’t tell the borrower about the exchange rate fluctuation risks. When it started, the Australian dollar was buying two Swiss Francs, but then at its peak, the exchange rate was par. So if they borrowed $1 million, they now owed the banks $2 million.”
Mr Davis said the banks spruiked these loans to vulnerable borrowers because they wanted to offload the Swiss Francs they’d bought.
“It was just disgusting, the loans went awfully bad for the borrowers. It crippled them financially,” he said.
“One of my clients, a farmer, came to see me when I was working as a solicitor. He was involved in this – he was hopelessly in default; the National Bank was selling him up.
“We sued the National Bank in the Supreme Court in Sydney in 1987. We were a little country firm representing this third-generation dairy farmer and felt we had to take the bank on.”
Pitt Street Bankers is available to buy online.
Throughout his career, Mr Davis wanted to write about this foreign loan scheme and his David v Goliath courtroom battle.
“This book has been on my bucket list for 40 years,” he said. ”When COVID struck, I said to my wife, ‘I’m going to write that story’. I’ve always loved writing and I finally started on my first novel in my 70s.
“I’ve had a bit of luck. My publisher’s wife bought the book off me at a show in South-East Queensland. She read the story, loved it, and sent it down to Michael Wilkinson from Wilkinson Publishing. He read it and said, ‘Gary, you know you’ve got an international bestseller on your hand’.
“Michael’s claim to fame is that he wrote the Phar Lap story that they made into a movie. He’s now my publisher.”
Mr Davis has promoted his book at the agricultural shows in Griffith and Wagga this past month. He travelled to Leeton on Wednesday (9 October) and plans to go to the South Coast and rural Victoria.
“I’m 75 and I’m on a book tour. It’s so bloody exciting. We raised $5000 for the charity Rural Aid from the initial sale of the book.
“I’m now in the process of doing my second novel. My wife is an actress and she is helping me bring the scenes to life. People tell me reading my book is like watching a movie.”
Pitt Street Bankers can be bought on Gary Davis’s website.
Loading ...
