History

To explore our fascinating heritage, or for a quick snapshot of the stories that define it, the Albury LibraryMuseum is the perfect place to start.

The region has always been a meeting place and crossing point. The area, known to tribes as 'Mungabareena', was an important tribal meeting place. Ancient scars on river red gums indicate that Aboriginal people carved out bark canoes here for fishing on the river.

British explorers Hume and Hovell marked a tree, in the now named the Hovell Tree Park, indicating a place where the Murray could be crossed without difficulty.

Later, Albury became a transfer point on the break of gauge railway between Sydney and Melbourne. Take a walk around the 19th century grand Italianate style railway station.

A visit to the magnificent wall at Lake Hume, 10km upstream from Albury, gives a sense of why the Hume Dam took 17 years to construct. It offers magnificent views of the vast lake, which holds six times the water volume of Sydney Harbour.

Explore Block 19 at Bonegilla Migrant Reception and Training Centre in Wodonga. Bonegilla was the first, largest and longest-operating migration reception centres in Australia. 320,000 migrants from more than 35 different ethnic groups passed through its gates between 1947 and 1971. The Albury LibraryMuseum’s Crossing Place exhibition provides in-depth insight into Bonegilla’s highs and lows.