A PLAN to amalgamate Albury and Wodonga councils hit its strongest hurdle on the site where the two cities on Friday jumped at the chance to team up.
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The Cube, once a stage for The Wiggles and comedian Anh Do, hosted separate meetings of the Albury and Wodonga councils to endorse a united approach to lobbying.
But 16 years ago, the predecessor to The Cube, the Wodonga Civic Centre, was the location for a public forum which shattered the One City proposal.
Then premiers Steve Bracks (Victoria) and Bob Carr (NSW) announced at the Lake Hume resort on March 26, 2001, the Albury and Wodonga councils would be merging.
“The creation of the city would be a symbol of Australia, a powerful symbol of the nation and of the nation’s maturity after 100 years of federation,” Mr Carr boasted.
But despite Mr Bracks lauding the city’s then mayors Mel Read (Albury) and John Watson (Wodonga) for leading the way on the plan, One City was seen as something imposed and undemocratic.
That sentiment reached its zenith in June 2001 when the cream-brick civic centre, demolished in 2011 for The Cube, hosted a public meeting.
Former federal National Party leader Ian Sinclair, who chaired the forum in his guise as One City’s midwife, faced a crowd of 300.
With placards stating ‘Death of Democracy’, ‘Democracy RIP’ and ‘We do want a say’, the mob’s frustration at the plan was clear.
“Why on earth would the city of Wodonga want to get into bed with the City of Albury when we are leading not only Victoria but Australia?” former Wodonga mayor Graham Crapp told the gathering.
Retired businessman Bob Wiltshire labelled the idea a “conspiracy” and told Mr Sinclair: “We don’t want it.”
Only three members of the audience dared to speak in favour of the merger – they were property valuer Bert Eastoe, then member for Benambra Tony Plowman and Charles Sturt University’s Bruce Pennay.
At the close of the two-hour forum, Mr Sinclair conceded a merger, which had been declared a certainty by the premiers, was “not necessarily destined to be the outcome”.
Despite a warmer reception at an Albury public meeting two nights later, One City continued to fray with Wodonga Council declaring it would not consider a merger until 2010.
In May 2002 a non-compulsory community poll was conducted by Albury Council with the marriage opposed by a 2-1 margin.
In 2013, a hitherto secret report by Mr Sinclair was made public which found up to $80 million a year in annual savings could have resulted from a merger.
Dr Pennay, who ensured Mr Sinclair’s report was exposed via a freedom of information request, reflected this week on One City in the context of the councils’ new partnership.
“One City came about because the two premiers were meeting at a Federation event in Sydney and they nudged each other and said ‘what can we do?’,” Dr Pennay said.
“It was their idea, not our idea.”
However, the author of the book Making a City in the Country: A History of the Albury-Wodonga National Growth Centre Project said the Twin Cities had a clear bond.
“We might have two separate councils and two local governments and we can all live with that as a long as we are one community,” Dr Pennay said.
“I think that’s important, a quarter of Wodonga employees lives across the river and a quarter of their people travel across the border and it’s about a fifth for Albury, so we’re one labour market.”
Dr Pennay said it made sense for Albury and Wodonga councils to speak as one, particularly when lobbying for government largesse alongside other significant regional centres.
“The way to get big money is via Canberra, it’s alright for Wodonga to look to Melbourne and Albury to Sydney, but Albury-Wodonga is recognised in Canberra,” he said.
“It’s one of the 20 biggest cities in Australia, but how long we remain there is another question because the nearest city to us, Launceston, is being made a priority for Commonwealth funding.”
Wodonga Ratepayers’ Association president Ian Deegan described the councils’ partnership deal as “excellent”, recalling how as mayor he went to Canberra in the late 1980s with his Albury counterpart John Roach to lobby then education minister John Dawkins for a Border university during a shake-up of the tertiary sector.
“I just hope that they work together and the principles they put up are equal to both sides of the Border,” Mr Deegan said.
He also warned there needed to be an enduring commitment which survived the terms of current mayors Kevin Mack (Albury) and Anna Speedie (Wodonga).
“It might be great for Kevin and Anna at the top, but you also need it to work at officer level and management level,” Mr Deegan said.
“Mayors change and you don’t know whether it will work with others, you might get someone that says ‘stuff you Albury’ or ‘stuff you Wodonga’.”
Dr Pennay admits divisions in the past have seen organisations such as the council-funded Investment Albury Wodonga, which helped firms set up on the Border, disappear.
But he believes if ratepayers are convinced of the merits of councils acting jointly, a partnership will succeed in the field of public opinion.
Dr Pennay points to The Border Mail as an example of how serving Albury and Wodonga as one community works, noting the newspaper has been straddling the cities for 114 years.
“Ian Sinclair said you can have an elastic border, that’s a border that expands for some things and can come back for other things,” Dr Pennay said.
“You can talk to the Commonwealth for some things and Sydney and Melbourne for other things.”
Like the Wodonga building that housed the boisterous meeting in 2001, the bulk of the leaders of that time are long departed.
Mr Carr resigned in 2005 after winning a third election with Mr Bracks quitting unexpectedly in 2007 for more family moments.
Mr Sinclair, 88, breeds cattle in the Manning Valley in northern NSW and told The Australian earlier this year he is “not one for living in the past”.
Mr Read died suddenly at the age of 73 in October 2008 after a life which had seen him appointed chief commissioner of the newly amalgamated Wodonga Council in 1994 before becoming Albury mayor in 2000.
The only figure of that time that continues to be prominent is then Wodonga mayor John Watson.
After an eight-year stint away from the Hovell Street chamber which saw him oversee Hungry Jack’s on the Border, Cr Watson was again elected to Wodonga Council in 2012.
He was an absentee for Friday’s event due to compassionate leave.
In 2013, Cr Watson admitted the One City merger was dumped on the councils, but he pointed to growing co-operation between the cities.
"At the time it was forced upon us and we didn't get communicated to by the premiers," Cr Watson told The Border Mail.
"If it was marketed differently, you never know what might have occurred.
"If you don't take the people with you, it's not going to work
"In today's climate it would be very hard to put up a proposal of a one city but I think quietly in the background our two councils and its offices are working very well together.”
After 16 years, Albury and Wodonga councils have finally squared up, though not in a merger but in a partnership aptly born at The Cube.