I remember visiting a school friend from West Albury who worked on large machinery for Thiess Brothers in 1978 and 1979 when the dam was being built.

He lived in a caravan at the Dartmouth Dam's workers' camp and I was privileged to see the dam under construction.

I also knew someone who drove up to the dam the first day the water was to be released. He described huge rocks the size of refrigerators being tumbled and moved about below the wall by the powerful rush of water let through the gates.

Being from Albury, I miss Victoria's beautiful mountain country and wish I could be there too to see the Dartmouth Dam spill over.

IN OTHER NEWS:

It can only be described as galling that Wonthaggi - a local hospital - receives an investment of nearly $300 million from the Victorian government, having already received $115 million.

Our region continues to suffer. This is made even more troubling when you consider the scale of Albury Wodonga Health by comparison.

AWH is classed as a Regional Health Service, six of which service the whole of Victoria outside metropolitan Melbourne. These are: AWH, Barwon Health (Geelong) Ballarat, Bendigo, La Trobe Valley and Goulburn Valley Health services. Of these, by any measure (number of babies born, ED presentations, patients admitted) AWH is the largest and busiest after Barwon.

Despite this Albury Wodonga Health has been sorely neglected when it comes to Victorian funding for appropriate hospital infrastructure.

All the other regional health services have received infrastructure funding in the hundreds of millions of dollars, including $1.2 billion for the new Bendigo Hospital, while AWH has had minimal, band-aid contributions from Victoria.

AWH services a population of some 300,000 people across our region and our clinicians work tirelessly to fulfil the vison of quality acute care close to home - exemplified by the success of the Albury Wodonga Regional Cancer Centre. The lack of fit-for-purpose infrastructure is now a great threat to the health of our patients and to the recruitment and retention of professional staff. If the two state premiers and federal health minister could work together to fund a new build at AWH, the costs could be shared, and efficiencies maximised.

Albury-Wodonga needs a commitment to a new hospital - on a new site - now!

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