HOW a place is formed is central to its history and in Albury's case there's been great stress on it emerging because it was deemed the ideal crossing place on the Murray River.
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Geography certainly played a part but lesser known is how the village was surveyed in response to the threat of Aboriginal attacks on colonists.
Tensions erupted with the Faithfull Massacre at Benalla in April 1838 and NSW Governor George Gipps two months later ordered a village on the Murray be surveyed.
That became Albury and a police hut was erected to guard against violence from Aboriginal inhabitants.
Wiradjuri elder Liz Heta agrees there should be acknowledgement of the context between blacks and whites that gave rise to Albury's formation but has concerns about the monument site.
The Border Mail supports recognising the uneasy happenings that gave rise to Albury.
We have a street named for surveyor Thomas Townsend, who was ordered to map Albury and reported it was a place the "natives called Bungambrawatha".
But how Townsend came to have that task and its impetus are not widely known.
As Mrs Heta said it is important for reconciliation that the past is acknowledged and it can create a thirst for greater understanding.
In 1954 Albury Council commissioned Border City, a history book by William Bayley with only a few sentences on the confrontations between blacks and whites.
After stating the threat of Aborigines it notes "some were killed by the white settlers, others fell victim to white man's diseases....the remainder moved on to quieter and more peaceful hunting grounds, leaving the rich river flats and grazing lands for the white men".
More than 65 years later, we say Albury Council should commission a display which gives a fuller picture to that time and the birth of the city.