Time for real action after another Gateway Island wishlist, say Wodonga councillors

Almost 400 submissions and comments were sent to Wodonga Council during the consultation process this year, before the final version was released in December.

Cr Danny Lowe said he was impressed with the suggestions from both Wodonga and Albury residents, but this was the fourth version of the master plan.

“What I hope would be the outcome of this master plan … the community has given us feedback of what they’d like to see, it would be really good to put this into action,” he said.

The master plan includes river access for swimmers, which has been called for over many years.

In line with stronger collaboration with Albury, as part of the “two cities, one community” initiative, the plan also includes three river crossings for pedestrians and cyclists to easily move between the locations.

Big tourism projects included holiday park facilities starting with low-cost options, then cabins and glamping; land and water-based adventure parks, but not major theme parks; and development of a Riverine Native Botanic Gardens and Nursery.

Cr Ron Mildren was not phased by another revision of the master plan, saying it created momentum to help change occur, but also did not believe all the “very ambitious series of projects” would actually happen.

“I’m hopeful that we’re not just creating another wishlist,” he said.

“We probably won’t get all of the outcomes and some of the big things we want probably won’t happen, some of the lesser things may not happen. But it doesn’t matter – we’ve got to get some of the things that we’ve got in this plan up.”

Mayor Anna Speedie defended the perceived lack of action, saying hosting concerts for 20,000 people and the Australian National Dragon Boat Championships showed plans had been delivered.

She said the latest update was a “huge master plan”.

“I think it is exciting and yes, there is a mountain of work ahead of us, but there’s some pretty exciting stuff as well,” she said.

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