Albury New South Wales – my hometown

/ 3sistersabroad

Hi everyone! So I thought I would do a few posts about the town I now live in. Albury, situated on the border of NSW and Victoria. The mighty Murray River flows majestically between the two towns of Albury and Wodonga. We have been living here since December 2020. A few years ago in December 2014 we moved from Ballarat to Wodonga. We were only in Wodonga for 18 months moved to Shepparton for work reasons. Yes we move around a bit but we get to see this wonderful country we live in.

Quick history lesson on Albury – Marked by Captain William Hovell in 1824 it is the first evidence of the presence of Europeans in the Albury area. The Hovell Tree, marked by the explorer on November 17, 1824, was flanked by another tree marked by Hamilton Hume which was destroyed by fire in the 1840’s. 

Located 553 km south-west of Sydney via the Hume Highway and 326 km north-east of Melbourne, Albury is 183 m above sea-level.

When a mail service was established from Yass to Port Phillip a townsite on the northern bank of the Murray River was surveyed and named ‘Bungambrewatah’, a Wiradjuri term meaning ‘the crossing place’. The name was changed to Aldbury. The following year it was gazetted as Albury, after a village near Guildford in Surrey, England.

Said that would be brief lol. So many things to do here in Albury/Wodonga. One of the main attractions is the Hume Weir/Hume Dam and Lake Hume. On any day of the week you will find people having fun on the lake. Boating, fishing, swimming, camping etc.

June 20th 2016 – no water at all. Where my dear dog Beth is laying is now under water. Check out the tree.

September 8th 2016..What a difference a bit of rain and good snow melts make!
This was on taken on the 11th September 2021 after great winter rains and melting snow. Same tree as in the photo from 2016!

Back in 2015 when we lived in Wodonga on the Victorian side, Lake Hume/Hume Weir, the peak of water was at 50%. Today the level is 99.1% full. In late 2016 the level of the Lake was at 97%. Last year the snowy region had a bumper season and eventually that melts and heads down the river system of the Mitta Mitta river and into the Murray river. We have also had huge rainfalls in November, December and January we hit a record of over 300 mls of rain for the month. Crazy times. Lots of thunderstorms and weird lightning shows. Great for photographers not for owners of dogs who hate the storms.

The weir is so full they have opened up some of the gates on the Hume Dam – 11 September 2021

Majestic view of the Hume Weir Dam and some of the gates open. 11 September 2021

The Hume Weir/Lake is situated 16kms from Albury/Wodonga. Its situated just below where the Mitta Mitta River and Murray River join. It can hold maximum of 3,005,156 megalitres, about six times the volume of Sydney Harbour. The dam’s catchment area of 15,300 square kilometres, two thirds of which is in Victoria, includes much of the rugged Australian Alps where annual rainfall can exceed 2000mm. Flows from the Snowy River may also be diverted into the catchment by the Snowy Mountains Hydro Electric Scheme.

The Hume Weir/Dam was built to help farmers further down the river to be able to control the Murray River for navigation, irrigation and flood and drought control. As you can see by the difference in the amount of water it goes from feast to famine with the water. 1919 was when the dam began to build and was finished 17 years later. In 1936 when it was finished it was the biggest in the Southern Hemphishere and one of the largest in the world.

Today the Hume Resevior is the main storage of the Murray River system and it supplies water across 3 states, New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia. When we moved here in December 2020 the lake was low again. It was a long walk from the parking area to the water. Most people drove down the dry beds to get close. Now, you park the car and virtually your at the waters edge lol. Drought and floods.

When they open the gates to let the water flow down the Murray, they have to warn farmers in case of flooding. Its an outing for a lot of people out to the weir when they open the gates.

We often to drive out to the Lake usually at Ebden. It has plenty of parking, a boat ramp, toilets, bbq’s that are under cover from the heat and rain and lovely grassed areas. All around the lake its dog friendly which is great for us. We often have a bbq then let the dogs run chasing tennis balls, swimming etc. We are miles away from the beautiful beaches that are along the Australian coastline so the Hume is our beach. Best thing there is no sharks lol or stingers or salt.

Right where this photo was taken at Ebden there is usually an island. Hidden by the vast amount of water in the lake! When the water levels are low you can walk out to the island with only water up to your ankles. True Story.

Over the next few posts I will share more about living here in Albury/Wodonga. Its far enough away from the big Cities of Melbourne, Sydney and our capital of Canberra but close enough to visit for a day or two if the need is required.

So today the Hume Dam is currently at 98.8% full.

29 thoughts on “Albury New South Wales – my hometown”

  1. I enjoyed learning about where you live. WOW. It’s crazy how quickly lakes can dry up. We have a few where we live and it’s so sad to see, since the areas they are in rely on them for tourism, summer campers, boaters, etc. I look forward to learning more.

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  2. Such a beautiful area and really quite close to us too in Tumbarumba! We often take the bikes down to the lake and ride around, it’s so interesting seeing the difference the water levels make to the scenery. Great to read more about where you live Bree 🙂 #weekendcoffeeshare

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  4. Hi Bree,
    What a great tour and tutorial about the area.
    I’d love to visit Australia, but covid, cost and the real question, where to start?
    From other bloggers, I’ve learned lots about their slice of Australia because few can move about.
    But even with what I’ve seen, I’d have to move to and live there for a year or more to even begin to experience even a fraction of what Australia has to offer.
    I so enjoyed your view.
    Many thanks

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    • Australia is such a large place and it can take years to be able to see it all. I should know I was born here and yet to see even 1/4 of this wonderful country. Each state has something different to offer. So if you ever do, think about what you would love to see…outback, our beautiful coastline, etc lol….I could go on. One day you will visit our shores. Thank you for stopping by

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  8. Looks interesting, the more so as I read a novel based in this area not too long ago, so good to see what it actually looks like (OK, it was a historical novel, so somethings will have changed over the 150 years since!)

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  9. I’m fascinated by how water changes a landscape during the wet and dry seasons. I suppose it’s because I also live in a country that is always at the mercy of the rain gods.
    Albury sounds like a delightful place to live.

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    • Australia yes a land of flooding plains and drought etc etc…which is what is happening now in Qld and Northern Rivers of NSW. They open the gates when it gets to a certain level so it never actually “spills”…warnings are sent out for low lying areas along the Murray so they can get their stock to higher ground.

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  11. Bree, Such interesting information and photos of the Hume Weir dam and reservoir. Thank you for the tour and for linking up with #weekendcoffeeshare. I hope you join us again when you write your next blog post. Have a great week ahead!

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  12. I loved learning a bit more about where you live. It must have been interesting to move about a little, seeing Ballarat, Wodonga, Shepparton and Albury. Do any of them particularly stand out for you, or feel like a favourite for you, for any reason?

    Bungambrewatah, not one I could attempt to pronounce but I really like the translation meaning, the crossing place. It’s kinda cool that Aldbury was adjusted In light of the English town Albury, I didn’t know that.

    The photos of rising waters are quite eye-opening. I do like a good storm – when you’re indoors and can look out the window, but not where you walk outside afterwards and find damage. The dangerous storms are very unnerving, we don’t see much like that thankfully in the UK but it’s heartbreaking to see such destruction elsewhere. Mother Nature is as beautiful as she is fierce.

    The lake at Ebden looks and sounds lovely. I can see the allure of it when it’s dog friendly, easy to park, loos, bbqs etc. It’s hard to believe there’s an island unseen in that last photo, hidden by the water. Wow.

    Thank you for all of this, I like to learn a little more about the place for when I make my mad dash hidden in someone else’s suitcase and try to sneak in over there! 😉

    Caz xx

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