 He was a long-serving secretary of the Builders' Labourers Union and state secretary of the Federated Liquor and Allied Industries Employees' Union of Australia; he was also secretary and president of the Tasmanian Female Confectioners Union and state president of the Australian Textile Workers Union.He was president of the Hobart Trades Hall Council for most of the period from 1934 to 1944 and also served as president of the state Labor Party.Culley was elected to the Tasmanian House of Assembly seat of Denison for the Australian Labor Party at the 1922 election.