Wodonga ( Waywurru: ''Wordonga'') is a city on the

Victorian Victorian or Victorians may refer to: 19th century * Victorian era, British history during Queen Victoria's 19th-century reign ** Victorian architecture ** Victorian house ** Victorian decorative arts ** Victorian fashion ** Victorian literature ...

side of the border with New South Wales, north-east of Melbourne, Australia. It is located wholly within the boundaries of the City of Wodonga

LGA LaGuardia Airport is a civil airport in East Elmhurst, Queens, New York City. Covering , the facility was established in 1929 and began operating as a public airport in 1939. It is named after former New York City mayor Fiorello La Guardia. ...

. Its population is approximately 35,100 and is separated from its twin city in New South Wales, Albury, by the Murray River. Together, the two cities form an urban area with an estimated population of 93,603. Estimated resident population, 30 June 2018.

History

Founded as a customs post with its twin city Albury on the other side of the Murray River, the town grew subsequent to the opening of the first bridge across the Murray in 1860. Originally named Wodonga, its name was changed to Belvoir then later back to Wodonga. The Post Office opened 1 June 1856 although known as Belvoir until 26 July 1869. It had previously been regarded as the smaller, less prosperous cousin of the two. Whilst still somewhat smaller than Albury, economic growth in both areas has ameliorated such distinctions. The local Indigenous Waywurru name for the area, "Wordonga", refers to an edible plant or nut found in lagoons.

Geography

Climate

The city gets around 125.1 clear days annually, largely in summer and autumn. Winters are cloudy and damp.

Government and politics

Wodonga is in the federal Division of Indi. The current representative for the Division of Indi is independent member Helen Haines. Wodonga is in the

Electoral district of Benambra.

Bill Tilley William John Tilley (born 29 March 1963) is the Liberal Party member for the seat of Benambra in the Victorian Legislative Assembly. He was elected at the 2006 Victorian state election, beating Labor candidate and Wodonga mayor Lisa Maho ...

of the Liberal Party has represented the electoral district of Benambra since the

2006 Victorian state election The 2006 Victorian state election, held on Saturday, 25 November 2006, was for the 56th Parliament of Victoria. Just over 3 million Victorians registered to vote elected 88 members to the Legislative Assembly and, for the first time, 40 member ...

Culture

Much of the arts and theatrical activity in the region is conducted in a cross-border fashion; for instance

HotHouse Theatre HotHouse Theatre is a professional theatre company based in Albury–Wodonga on the border of New South Wales and Victoria, Australia. It evolved from the Murray River Performing Group which was established in 1979. HotHouse Theatre is reside ...

is located almost equidistant from the Wodonga and Albury city centres. Wodonga is served by the Apex Club of Wodonga, the Wodonga Lions Club and two Rotary clubs – Belvoir Wodonga and Wodonga. Community Service is important to the Wodonga Community and activities such as the cities Australia Day Celebrations, Christmas Carols and the display of Santa's throughout the City over the festive season would not be possible without community service clubs. Recently Apexian Dean Freeman was awarded National Apexian of the Year for community service efforts throughout the area and overseas.

Popular culture

Leonard Hubbard recorded the song ''Wodonga'' in 1924. The World's Biggest Rolling Pin (listed in the

Guinness Book of World Records ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a reference book published annually, listing world ...

) is located in Wodonga, atop "Henri's Bakery".

Sports

Like much of country Victoria, Wodonga has a large and valued sporting culture. There are many sporting grounds in, and around, the area, and they are often frequented by the public in a social manner, when not being used for organised sport. There are three

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...

clubs in Wodonga, the Wodonga Football Club, the Wodonga Raiders Football Club and the Wodonga Saints Football Club. Wodonga and Wodonga Raiders compete in the Ovens & Murray Football League, while the Wodonga Saints compete in the Tallangatta & District Football League. There are many other sporting clubs in the region. Brisbane Lions dual-premiership player Daniel Bradshaw and celebrated St. Kilda forward Fraser Gehrig are originally from Wodonga. Wodonga is also home to a number of cricket clubs which compete in the Cricket Albury Wodonga (CAW) competition. These include the Belvoir Eagles, Wodonga Bulldogs and Wodonga Raiders. Cyclists are catered for by the Albury Wodonga Cycling Club. The Albury Wodonga Cycling Club holds club races most weekends, is part of the Riverina Interclub and hosts the annual

John Woodman Memorial The John Woodman Memorial, otherwise known as the Wagga to Albury, is an annual bicycle handicap race that runs between the New South Wales cities of Wagga Wagga and Albury. The event was first run in the 1930s, leaving the Wagga Railway Station ...

Wagga to Albury Cycling Classic. Golfers play the course at SS&A Wodonga on Parkers Road. Wodonga has two rugby league clubs called the Wodonga Wombats and Bonegilla Gorillas that play in the Murray Cup. Former clubs include the Wodonga Storm and Wodonga Bears, both of whom were involved in Victorian Rugby League competitions. Australian Socceroos Archie Thompson and Joshua Kennedy played for soccer team Twin City Wanderers as children. Wodonga Diamonds Football Club and Wodonga Heart Football Club are two other soccer clubs based in Wodonga. All three clubs compete in the Albury Wodonga Football Association, in which Wodonga Diamonds helped establish and is historically the most dominant club. In early 2014, a new club representing the region and playing its games in Wodonga was founded as

Murray United F.C. Murray United FC is an Australian soccer club encapsulating NSW's Southern Riverina and North East Victoria. The club is based in Albury/Wodonga and competes in the National Premier Leagues Victoria 3 competition. The club plays its home matches ...

Murray United's senior structure has since ceased to exists, and now the club only fields junior teams throughout various tiers of Junior NPL. Wodonga's Tennis Centre is the largest inland tennis complex in Australia and incorporates not only tennis but also croquet and lawn bowls. The centre has 32 natural grass courts, 8 synthetic grass courts with lights for night use, and 10 plexicushion courts with lights for night use. Wodonga has a horse racing club, the Wodonga & District Turf Club, which schedules around seven race meetings a year including the Wodonga Cup meeting in November. Wodonga also has a BMX club, which is situated in a complex near the home ground of local AFL team, Wodonga Raiders. Wodonga has a radio-controlled car site with both on-road and off-road tracks on the Lincoln Causeway.

Economy and infrastructure

Industry

Major secondary industries based in Wodonga include a logistics distributions hub (LOGIC), a large cattle market, a pet food factory (

Mars Petcare Mars, Incorporated is an American multinational manufacturer of confectionery, pet food, and other food products and a provider of animal care services, with US$40 billion in annual sales in 2021. Mars was ranked as the fourth-largest priva ...

), a can factory (Visy), a cardboard box factory (Visy Board), a hydraulic hose manufacturer ( Parker Hannifin), an abattoir, a foundry (

Bradken Bradken is a manufacturer and supplier of differentiated consumable and capital products to the mining, transport, general industrial and contract manufacturing markets with operations in Australia, China, Canada, India, Malaysia and the United ...

), a polypropylene film manufacturer (Taghleef Industries (formerly Shorko) a concrete pipe & pole manufacturer (Rocla) and a transformer manufacturer ( Wilson Transformer Company) as well as a variety of other smaller enterprises. It also serves as a central point for the delivery of government services to the surrounding region. It houses the Australian corporate headquarters for Mars. Wodonga is the site of an Australian Army logistics base and a training centre for Army technical apprentices, the

Army Logistic Training Centre The Army Logistic Training Centre (ALTC) is an Australian Army training establishment that is part of Forces Command. Established on 1 December 1995, through the amalgamation of nine separate logistic, health and personnel services schools and t ...

, which is based at Latchford Barracks and Gaza Ridge Barracks. It is also the home of a campus of La Trobe University and Wodonga Institute of TAFE. Several experiments in cross-border governance in an attempt to bring the cities of Albury and Wodonga together have been tried. (See Albury–Wodonga for details.) v2food is set to open a manufacturing plant, the will use locally-grown ingredients, in Wodonga in the second quarter of 2020.

Media

Print

A daily tabloid owned by Australian Community Media, the '' Border Mail'', is printed in Wodonga. The Border Mail has offices in both Albury and Wodonga.

Television

Wodonga is part of the Albury-Wodonga/Murray/North-East Victoria television market and has access to all major TV networks. Channels available include Prime7 (part of the Seven Network), WIN Television (part of

Nine Network The Nine Network (stylised 9Network, commonly known as Channel Nine or simply Nine) is an Australian commercial free-to-air television network. It is owned by parent company Nine Entertainment and is one of five main free-to-air television netw ...

), Southern Cross 10 (part of the Network 10), as well as the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) and the Special Broadcasting Service, more commonly known as SBS. Several of these networks also offer additional digital-only channels, including ABC TV Plus, ABC Me, ABC News, SBS Viceland, 7two, 7mate,

10 Bold 10 Bold is an Australian free-to-air digital television multichannel owned by Network 10. It originally launched on 26 March 2009 as One HD with a focus on broadcasting sports-based programming and events, but rebranded to One in April 2011 to ...

10 Peach 10 Peach is an Australian free-to-air television channel operated by Network 10. It was launched on 11 January 2011 as Eleven. It is owned by ElevenCo, which was established as a joint venture between Ten Network Holdings and CBS Studios Inter ...

, 9Gem and 9Go!. Two television news bulletins featuring local content are offered in Albury-Wodonga and the surrounding region. Prime7 broadcasts its bulletin live at 6.00pm from studios in

Canberra Canberra ( ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The ci ...

. WIN Television's bulletin is produced in Ballarat but features Albury-Wodonga region based content, and airs on delay at 6.30pm. Southern Cross Ten also provides short local news updates which are produced in Shepparton, Victoria, however, these do not feature significant local content from the Albury-Wodonga region.

Radio

There are three commercial radio stations broadcasting into Wodonga that are based over the border in Albury, namely 1494 2AY,

Triple M The Border Triple M The Border (official List of radio station callsigns in New South Wales, callsign: 2BDR) is a commercial radio station owned and operated by Southern Cross Austereo as part of the Triple M (radio network), Triple M network. The station ...

FM 105.7, and Hit104.9 The Border. Notably, Hit FM south eastern network is programmed out of the Albury/Wodonga Hub, going to centres around New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania and into South Australia. Broadcast out of the same building as Triple M The Border, which is also networked to local stations around New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania and South Australia. Albury/Wodonga is one radio market, thus advertisements are directed to both sides of the border. The Albury/Wodonga market underwent significant change in 2005 when

Macquarie Southern Cross Media Southern Cross Media Group Limited, Trade name, doing business as Southern Cross Austereo, is an Australian media company which operates broadcast radio and Terrestrial television, television stations. It is the largest radio broadcaster in A ...

bought 105.7 The River from RG Capital, and 2AY and Star FM from the DMG Radio Australia. Due to cross-media ownership laws preventing the ownership of more than two stations in one market, Macquarie was required to sell one of these stations and in September 2005 sold 2AY to the Ace Radio network. 2AY takes its night time programming from

Nine Radio Nine Radio (formerly Macquarie Media Limited) is an Australian media company, owned by parent company Nine Entertainment Co. and headquartered in North Sydney, New South Wales, the company operates radio stations nationally in the capital cit ...

. Commercial radio stations from Wangaratta (3NE, Edge FM) can also be received in most parts of Wodonga. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation produces breakfast and morning radio programs through its local radio network, from the studios of

ABC Goulburn Murray ABC Goulburn Murray (call sign: 3MRR) is an ABC Local Radio station based in Wodonga, Victoria, broadcasting to North East Victoria and Southern New South Wales. First aired on 16 December 1931 as 2CO from studios in Albury, New South Wales, in ...

located in Wodonga on 106.5FM. The rest of its content is delivered from Melbourne. The ABC also deliver Radio National on 990 AM, ABC Classic on 104.1 FM, ABC NewsRadio on 100.9 FM and Triple J on 103.3 FM. There is also a community radio station known as 2REM 107.3 FM. The Albury-Wodonga Community Radio station plays a large number of speciality programs including those for the retiree, ethnic and aboriginal communities throughout the day and a range of musical styles including underground and independent artists from 8:00pm onwards. In addition, the area is serviced by a

Radio for the Print Handicapped Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmitt ...

station, 2APH, on 101.7 FM. Other stations include the Albury-Wodonga Christian Broadcasters' 98.5 The Light, and the dance formatted narrowcaster RawFM on 87.6 FM.

Transport

Wodonga railway station Wodonga railway station is located on the North East line in Victoria, Australia. It serves the city of Wodonga, and it opened on 25 June 2011.North East railway line. A new line was officially opened in late 2010 bypassing the Wodonga CBD, for which the town held a celebratory day for the last commercial passenger train to pass through the town centre. This line took the rail network away from the centre of town (and removed the level crossing), and instead a new station was built and the rail is now on a bridge over to Albury. Wodonga is on the junction of the

Hume Highway Hume Highway, inclusive of the sections now known as Hume Freeway and Hume Motorway, is one of Australia's major inter-city national highways, running for between Melbourne in the southwest and Sydney in the northeast. Upgrading of the route ...

(the main route from Melbourne to Sydney) and the Murray Valley Highway (which follows the southern bank of the Murray River). Local public transport is provided by Dysons (which took over Mylon Motorways) who run buses on a number of routes both within Wodonga and to Albury. Bus services are generally quite infrequent and public transport use in Wodonga is very low. There are also long-distance bus services to the capitals. There is a comprehensive network of bicycle paths in Wodonga, including one across the Lincoln Causeway to Albury.

Albury Airport Albury Airport is a regional airport located northeast Albury, New South Wales, Australia. The airport, which also serves Albury's adjacent twin city of Wodonga, Victoria was the fifth busiest in New South Wales as of 2016. The airport also h ...

, which provides scheduled commuter flights to Melbourne and Sydney, is a short drive from Wodonga.

Education

From 2006, the three government high schools have merged to form a senior college for Years 10, 11 and 12, known as Wodonga Senior Secondary College, and a school for Years 7, 8 and 9, known as Wodonga Middle Years College, on two campuses; Felltimber and Huon Campus. The former 3 public high schools in Wodonga were Wodonga High School, Mitchell Secondary College and Wodonga West Secondary College. Wodonga High School celebrated its 50th birthday in 2005. Private schools in Wodonga include:

Catholic College Wodonga Catholic College Wodonga is a co-educational Catholic school in Wodonga, Victoria, Australia, catering for students from Years 7 through to 12. Founded by the Wodonga Catholic Parish in 1979, the College's aim is to find "Life in Jesus" and to ...

, Trinity Anglican College, Victory Lutheran College, Mount Carmel Christian School, St Augustines Primary School, St Monicas Primary School and St Francis of Assisi Primary School (formerly Frayne College). Higher education is locally served by the Wodonga Institute of TAFE and La Trobe University. The regional Albury-Wodonga campus of La Trobe University was established in 1991 and provides courses in education, health sciences, biology, and business. The Albury-based campuses of Charles Stuart University,

TAFE NSW TAFE NSW is an Australian vocational education and training provider. Annually, the network trains over 500,000 students in campus, workplace, online, or distance education methods of education. It was established as an independent statutory bod ...

and the

UNSW The University of New South Wales (UNSW), also known as UNSW Sydney, is a public research university based in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is one of the founding members of Group of Eight, a coalition of Australian research-intensive ...

Rural Clinical School of Medicine are also closely located to Wodonga. Wodonga is also home to the

Flying Fruit Fly Circus School The Flying Fruit Fly Circus School is the only primary and secondary-level circus school in Australia. It was founded in 1987 as the educational arm of The Flying Fruit Fly Circus. The school was originally located on the grounds of Wodonga High ...

, the educational arm of The Flying Fruit Fly Circus, that provides educational services with an emphasis on the

performing arts The performing arts are arts such as music, dance, and drama which are performed for an audience. They are different from the visual arts, which are the use of paint, canvas or various materials to create physical or static art objects. Perform ...

and contemporary circus training. In 2003 a devastating fire destroyed the school's facilities at, then Wodonga High School, and the school relocated to Wodonga West Secondary College (now Wodonga Middle Years College Felltimber Campus).

References

External links

City of Wodonga Council Homepage

Video - Wodonga: Alive with possibilities

Video - Culture Victoria: The Saleyards Made Wodonga

Video - Culture Victoria: The Icon of Wodonga (Wodonga Water Tower)

Video - Homefront stories: Memories of Wodonga during World War 1
{{authority control Cities in Victoria (Australia) Towns in Upper Hume City of Wodonga Populated places on the Murray River