In 1973, Whitlam launched the National Growth Centre with a vision Albury-Wodonga would rival Canberra in size and opportunity.

“We are incredibly lucky here to have a regional community, and even a region, that really loves the arts,” Froudist says.

“And that goes back to the Development Corporation, and the growth experiment.

“The idea that if you’re wanting a lot of people to move to the country you have to give them some culture and those things.

“We’re incredibly lucky to have organisations like HotHouse, Fruit Flies, MAMA, Wang Jazz festival, all of the little folk festivals that surround us.

“There’s always things on and it’s really different stuff.”

She cites Albury duo Jo Lancaster and Simon Yates as an example of Border-based creative success stories.

For a decade Lancaster and Yates’ troupe – Acrobat – has wowed audiences around the world with its spectacular stage shows. 

“They make world-class experimental and physical theatre, and they make it here and tour internationally,” she says.

“We are extremely lucky here. I think regional Australia is at an interesting time where I think the government is looking again at creating and growing healthy regions, strong regions.

“Culture has a massive role in the livability of a place and so I can only see that we’re going to get even more vibrant and amazing here in the region.”

Froudist leaves HotHouse on Friday after nearly three years at the helm.

She joined the company in April 2014 from respected Sydney company Belvoir Street Theatre, where was associate producer, previously studying management at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts.

A desire to return to her producing roots is behind the change in career direction.

“I guess it’s a bit of an experiment to see whether the industry can handle freelance producers living regionally,” she says.

“There are plenty of art institutions and things happening here, and I think I can work here, but I also want to work nationally and internationally and take some works on tour.

“I think I should be able to move around and do those things and be based here.”

Froudist says HotHouse Theatre would continue on the path to more community involvement, laid out by Froudist and artistic director Lyn Wallis in the past 12 months.

She forecasts more outdoor performances and continued diversity in works offered.

“The first thing Lyn and I did when she started was we wrote a five-year plan,” she says.

“It was so interesting to do that with one artistic director who had only just joined the company, and myself who’d been in the role for a year and talking to the rest of the community about it.

“It’s a really exciting plan.

“The question is ‘What does a theatre company in regional Australia look like now, what does it need to look like and what’s our responsibility to the community?’ and I think you’re going to see HotHouse out and about a lot more, more diverse in its work, more diverse in its audiences.

“And part of that is programming works like Picasso and his Dog this year and Kaput next year, bringing more family works into the space.

“We’re working on a big outdoor work for 2018 which is really exciting.

“So we’re kind of picking the bits from our past that were really interesting and inspiring for the community and revisiting them in a contemporary way that looks to the future as well.”