Albury, New South Wales
From Freepedia
Albury (postcode: 2640, 36°03′ S 146°54′ E) is a city in New South Wales, located on the Hume Highway on the northern side of the Murray River. Its population is 42 438 (2001 Census). It is approximately 550 km from the state capital Sydney, but only 300 km from the Victorian capital Melbourne. It is separated by the Murray from its twin city in Victoria, Wodonga. Of all the twin towns on the Murray, it is the only one where the larger town is on the New South Wales side of the river.
The IATA airport code for this city is ABX.
Contents |
History
Albury was founded mainly as a customs post when Victoria and New South Wales were independent colonies which imposed tariffs on each other's goods. Albury's proximity to Wodonga has spurred several efforts to achieve some kind of municipal governmental union (see Albury-Wodonga).
Originally New South Wales and Victoria had different railway gauges, which meant that all travellers in either direction had to change trains at Albury and it became the busiest station in Australia. To accommodate this, a very long railway platform was needed; the covered platform is one of the longest in Australia.
Sited on the main Melbourne-Sydney highway, Albury remains a major transit point of interstate commerce. It is the only major town on the Hume Highway yet to be bypassed, although construction on an internal freeway bypass has begun, after much controversy amongst the city's residents regarding its route. The other minor highways which connect to Albury are the Riverina Highway, which continues west through Berrigan and Deniliquin and east to the Hume Weir; and the Olympic Highway (renamed from the Olympic Way) which diverges left from the Hume 16 km north of Albury, into the centre of NSW, passing through Wagga Wagga and terminating with the Mid-Western Highway at Cowra.
There is a local airport which has scheduled daily flights to Sydney and Melbourne through two carriers, QantasLink and Regional Express, in addition to charter services.
Victoria Cross recipient Albert Chalmers Borella is buried in Albury, and the road leading from Albury Airport to the city was re-named Borella Road in 1979, in his honour.
Economy
Albury serves as an administrative centre for the agricultural communities around the area, and the city is the home of a large newsprint paper mill which processes the pine logs planted in the mountains to the east, an engineering plant which produces automatic transmissions for cars, and other smaller secondary industries.
Albury serves as a regional media centre. A daily tabloid, The Border Mail, with its offices in Wodonga, covers the area. One of the local television stations, Prime Television, also produces a regional news bulletin. The ABC produces a local morning radio program through its local radio network, but the rest of their content consists of rebroadcasts from Melbourne, which is the source of most state-based media imported to Albury. There are also three commercial radio stations, as well a community station and a Reading for the Print Handicapped station.
Albury is home to one of the three campuses of Charles Sturt University, as well as a branch of the Australian Taxation Office.
Sport
Albury is a stronghold of Australian rules football; further north rugby league is the main winter sport. The local Ovens and Murray league is one of the strongest regional leagues in Victoria, and many players from it have gone on to play in the Australian Football League, including Haydn Bunton, widely regarded as one of the sport's all-time greats.
Albury is the birthplace of women's tennis player Margaret Smith Court, basketballer Lauren Jackson and cricketer Steve Rixon, among other champion sportspeople.
The Albury Gold Cup horse race is major autumn event for the district. In 2005 it attracted a record crowd in excess of 18,600 racegoers. [1]
Tourism
The region surrounding Albury provides a wide variety of tourist attractions, including the wineries of Rutherglen, the historic goldfields towns of Beechworth and Yackandandah, the Hume Weir, boating and fishing on the many rivers and lakes (activities very popular with the locals), the forests of the Great Dividing Range and slightly further afield are many of Australia's snowfields. Albury itself, however, is not a major tourist destination. The paddle steamer Cumberoona runs tours along the Murray during the summer months (depending on river levels), and Monument Hill (home to the city's War Memorial) provides a good view of the city.
Culture
There is a strong regional theatre scene, with the Murray River Performing Group (MRPG) being the most notable company. It spawned the Flying Fruit Fly Circus in 1979, and these days conducts many productions through the Hothouse Theatre located on the floodplain between Albury and Wodonga. Many notable actors and comics have performed with the MRPG. Touring productions also often pass through the area.
The actor Richard Roxburgh was born in Albury.
Politics
Albury is the largest city in the Federal electorate of Farrer, of which the current representative is Sussan Ley of the Liberal Party, and the local state electorate of Albury, currently represented by Greg Aplin, also of the Liberal Party.
