Our last day has been spent taking in a few more of
the attractions Albury-Wodonga has to offer; we will leave tomorrow morning not
having seen all there is but so be it.
After dealing with the mundane chore of laundry, we
headed off into the sunshine down into Albury to visit the historic railway
station which is still in use and today was undergoing redecoration. We were
still able to make our way around the taped off areas to appreciate the special
features of this grand Italianate building opened for business in 1881.
As mentioned a couple of days ago, the railways
through both Victoria and New South Wales were particularly odd.
By the 1850s, all six British colonies in Australia
were independent, making their own decisions regarding transportation and
communication in isolation of their neighbours. New South Wales used the
standard railway track gauge of 4 foot 8 ½ inches (or 1.435 metres) while Victoria
used the broader gauge of 5 foot 3 inches (1.6 metres).
By the 1870s the two states had decided to link the
two colonies by rail at Albury-Wodonga. Victoria’s rail reached Wodonga in 1873
and eight years later, New South Wales’ rail reached Albury. Two years later
the Victorian line was extended across the river to Albury and it was here at
this station passengers were required to change trains. Amazingly it was not
until 1962, after almost eighty years the standard gauge was extended to
Melbourne making it possible to travel from Sydney to Melbourne without changing
trains.
The station here at Albury has one of the longest
covered platforms in Australia which would have made the waiting for transfer a
little more bearable.
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| The clock tower of the railway station |
Our next destination was the museum which shares its
premises with the council library. The hallway was filled with photos of kids “Coolections”
to which we gave our cursory attention. The serious part of the museum is an
exhibition titled “X Crossing Place – A Story of Albury” which weaves together
the story of Albury from its first contact with the Wiradjuri people,
traditional owners of the land, through the centuries of pioneers, immigrants
and the city as it is today. The explorers Hume and Hovell first came to this
spot on the Murray in 1824 and named the river the Hume River. Five years
later, Charles Sturt discovered the same river downstream and named it the
Murray River. After some time, Murray only came to be used however there is
frequent reference to the aboriginal name of Millewa.
Pastoralists followed through the 1830s and the town
was surveyed in 1838. Germans and Lebanese followed the settlors of British
origin, Chinese settled distracted from the gold rush of the region and much
later, post WWII, immigrants from all over the world. In 1972, Albury was
chosen as a town for the Families Resettlement Scheme, which created new
mainstream communities for disadvantaged and dispossessed Aboriginal people.
The Albury- Wodonga Aboriginal community is thus a “mixed mob”, coming from
many different regions and tribal backgrounds.
Exhibits in this intimate museum celebrate this
medley of people and highlight events and people who have put Albury on the
world map. Memorabilia from the lives of tennis players Margaret Court (who has
subsequently suffered “a crisis of faith” – don’t you just love that?) and Jack
Crawford, opera star Malcolm McEachern, “Eagle Pizza” founder and entrepreneur
Tom Potter and the world famous Flying Fruit Fly Circus, among others are on
show. The emergency landing of the KLM Uiver DC2 airliner in 1934 is also
celebrated in detail, along with the Bonegilla Migrant Experience. It is a
great little museum and certainly worth a visit but probably should be avoided
on Monday mornings while the interactive exhibition is still on and being
enjoyed or suffered by pre-school children, babies and their mothers. I did
struggle to hear much of the audio in the “X Crossing Place”. Still one cannot
complain, the whole facility is free to the public.
From here we drove out to the Wonga Wetlands, about
five kilometres west of Albury on the Riverina Highway. This is an eco-system
of lagoons and billabongs covering about 80 hectares and a haven for wildlife,
especially birds.
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| Wisteria growing over water tanks at the Wonga Wetlands |
The wetlands are today home to over a hundred and fifty identified bird
species, ancient river red gums that are sometimes described as a hundred and fifty years old
and sometimes six hundred years, a Wiradjuri campsite, several bird hides fashioned
from shipping containers and delightful walking tracks. We spent well over an
hour there loving every minute. We observed hundreds of ducks scatter
frantically away from our foot fall, swimming faster than we have ever seen
before and some seeming to run on the water before rising on the wing. We heard
frogs croaking and booming and stood by the muddy swamp edge trying to catch
sight of the source of these weird sounds. We crashed and banged our way
through the strange heavy metal doors and shutters of the containers,
frightening any birds we might have otherwise caught from the hide. Dozens of
wonderful superb blue fairy wrens darted about our path and we caught sight of
half a dozen rabbits playfully running in circles. We loved the place.
Our last destination was yet another lookout, that
on Huon Hill out past Wodonga and Bandiana. The park is a working farm of 238
hectares and the dirt road winds its way steeply up the hill to an elevation of
438 metres ASL. From the top one has 360 degree views up and down the Murray
Valley, over the two cities and south to Mount Bogong and Mount Feathertop. And
immediately below the Bandiana Army Camp is laid out for all the world to see
and take stock, rows of tanks and other military machinery. We had at last
found the ultimate lookout over Albury-Wodonga.
We returned to camp, sorted the dry laundry and
settled down for a final night in this excellent camp.
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