Twin city to Albury, which is on the NSW side of the Murray (Wodonga is on the Victorian side).
Location: 299 km north east of Melbourne on the Hume Highway.
Origin of name: An Aboriginal word for an edible nut. the name was first used by squatters Paul and Charles Huon, who settled in the area in 1836. When the town was created in 1852, it was surveyed and named Belvoir, after an English MP, Lord Belvoir of Leicestershire. By that time, the name Wodonga was in regular use and the new name was officially dropped in 1869.
Brief history:The decision to locate one half of Wodona's sister city, Albury, in NSW and the other in Victoria wasn't exactly planned. The boundary between NSW and Victoria was supposed to follow the route of the Murrumbidgee River well to the north of Albury, but a clerical error led to the Murray being declared the official dividing line. The twin city concept was developed in the 1960s as a way of decentralising away from the capital cities. it is the northern gateway to North East Victoria and the Victoria High Country. Set up as a military camp during the early days of World War II, a government complex at Bonegilla was converted into a transit camp to help cope with the flood of refugees and migrants who poured into Australia at war's end. From 1947 to 1971, the Bonegilla Migrant Reception & Training Centre gave shelter to more than 320,000 people from 31 different countries. Bonegilla is now back in Army hands.
Natural features: Red Hill; Mount Talgarno; Howlong Hill; Keiwa valley; Stringy Bark Hill; Murray River; Mount Lawson State Park
Built features: Military Museum, Bandiana; Hume Reservoir
Heritage features: 'Cambourne' (1890); De Kerrilleau homestead (c.1870)