Albury-Wodonga

Albury-Wodonga is a metropolitan area spanning two Australian states, with Albury in New South Wales and Wodonga in Victoria separated by the Murray River, with about 97,793 residents at the 2021 census and current estimates near 100,000, Australia 20th largest city. In the early 1970s the Whitlam government chose the region for the National Urban Growth Centres scheme, an ambitious decentralization initiative meant to redirect growth away from Sydney and Melbourne, with the three governments signing an agreement for its accelerated development on January 25, 1973. Though the plan projected a population of 300,000, it was abandoned after the Fraser government rejected the decentralization policies, and the region never reached that target.