YOUR SAY: Stories about Wodonga's lack of shopping are all too common

Firstly sir, I take offence at being labelled Ms, if unsure please call me by my first name.

Yes, we do have much shopping in Wodonga in the way of service stations, supermarkets, chemists and takeaways, but we have one furniture store, one electrical store, one independent jeweller (no competition for any of these guys), nowhere where CDs etc can be purchased, come 12pm on a Saturday you cannot buy a length of material, coloured thread or zips.

As for clothing, the specialist shops you talk of don't cater for all sizes, you can't purchase a coffee in this town past 4pm on any given day unless you go to the takeaways. Let's not even start on the picture theatre, I've been waiting 30 years for that one to eventuate.

I have been told many times by owners and shop assistants "no, sorry, you will have to go to Albury for that"; even our largest hardware store has been known to say "Albury have that, we don't".

As of this day I'm on my way to Albury to buy specialist shoes, so don't tell me we have plenty of choices when I'm living the opposite scenario every day. We don't even have a private health, Medicare or Centrelink office here any longer, no, we have to go to Albury for all that.

As I said previously, if you don't drive problems arise that many don't understand.

I was told by someone in the know 30-odd years ago, that the intention of the development corporation was to make Albury the shopping centre and Wodonga the business centre of the Twin Cities, it appears that's exactly what's happened.

Maybe, just maybe Wodonga could be marketed better, as anything new that opens up appears to be in Albury. We need to stand up and look after ourselves because you can bet Albury won't.

IN THE NEWS:

What type of country are we? What type of country should we be? I am appalled at the current rate of racism directed toward ethnic groups. Equally I am appalled at the attacks on Stan Grant and his wife, who have been subjected to grotesque racist attacks, resulting in Stan Grant backing away from the Q+A program.

We all need to call out abuse and extreme language. There is no place for racist attacks or comments in our multicultural country.

We can present as a compassionate, mature community by wholeheartedly supporting and embracing our fellow Indigenous citizens in voting "yes" at the forthcoming referendum.

Any community spokesperson who does not support the "yes" vote is publicising their lack of compassion and understanding of the continual struggle and loss within our Indigenous communities. It is time all Australians face our nation's history and condemn racism.

MORE COMMENT

To read more stories, download The Border Mail news app in the Apple Store or Google Play.

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: