Throughout and beyond the war there was a clamour of ideas about how the post-war years might be different. Another set of place stories help unravel shifts in thinking about the nation, region and towns in this transitional period.
Reconstructing the nation
Post-war reconstruction involved governments in initiating several huge nation-building projects which provided employment for those returning from the front and helped the nation overcome some of the vulnerabilities revealed in war-time. The Commonwealth Government undertook the huge Snowy Mountains Hydro-electric Scheme to meet the nation’s energy needs and to expand food production with irrigation. The Victorian Government expanded the Kiewa Hydro-electric project scheme to reduce its dependence on coal from NSW.
Workers from Wodonga helped raise the height of the Hume Dam wall to contain and channel increased volumes of water from the Snowy. A power station was built beside the dam wall. (Water NSW).
Wodonga was a worker recruitment and transit depot for expanding the Kiewa hydro-electric scheme. A new Rocla factory at Bandiana made and supplied concrete pipes. (Wodonga Historical Society).
Reconstructing regions
Post-war reconstruction plans involved new thinking about decentralisation and regional development. Wodonga Shire Council joined Albury Municipal Council in baulking at the suggestion that Wodonga might be in a North East Region centred on Wangaratta and Albury might be in a Riverina Region centred on Wagga Wagga. Both councils looked instead along the river for a Murray Valley Region.
Wodonga and Albury shared a river-long interest in securing developmental projects for a cross-border region. (Albury City Council Archives). The Melbourne-based state government favoured Wangaratta as the key to the North-East. The Sydney-based government favoured Wagga Wagga as the administrative centre for the Riverina.
There was during the Second World War new interest in asserting place identity at the local level. Towns, like Wodonga, had patriotically competed with other towns, such as Shepparton, in boasting of recruitment numbers and loan funds raised locally. Wodonga and its surrounds were proud of the roles played by the Wodonga branches of agencies like the CWA and the Red Cross to support troops at home and abroad. Paradoxically while Wodonga energetically asserted its own being, there were plainly advantages in working together with Albury. They were sister towns but together the two had one labour market. During and immediately after the Second World War their closely intertwined economic interests made for cross-border solidarity. As the Victory Day celebrations in 1946 showed, the two towns worked apart yet together (BMM 11 June 1946). With the rapidly growing village of Lavington in Hume Shire to the north, they were part of an urban conglomerate in which there were distinctive parts.
Reconstructing community life
Post-war reconstruction involved new thinking about decentralisation. The best way to discourage the drift from the city was to create well-equipped country towns where people might live rounded and varied lives. Large country towns like Albury were encouraged to plan community centres, which might have a range of facilities such as a library, art gallery, museum, live-performance theatre, music conservatorium, adult education venues and recreation areas for youth. Plainly people in cross-river Wodonga were going to enjoy the cultural amenities proposed, such as visits from the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.
The Albury branch of the Communist Party of Australia produced a pamphlet showing its ambitions for a town hall and community centre. (University of Melbourne archives).
Housing
Post-war reconstruction involved trying to meet the need for many more houses - and to improve the quality of housing. Demand outran supply. Wodonga Shire Council decided to permit the construction of temporary dwellings such as garages in which people might live while they built the rest of the house. This continued the pattern observed by the manager of the Bank of NSW, who noted that many people worked in Albury, but lived in Wodonga because it was cheaper (Bank of NSW manager reports, Westpac Archives, 1940).
Makeshift homes often remained incomplete for years. Post-war families continued to live for as many as 10 years in what had been approved as ‘temporary’ structures. (Border Morning Mail 17 December 1959).
The State Housing Commissions in Victoria and in NSW were slow in meeting the demand for houses. By 1949 Wodonga had been allocated 30, but Wangaratta 307. Albury had 50 homes, but Wagga Wagga 137. Those Melbourne and Sydney reckonings of housing need clearly indicated the part each place was expected to play in the urban settlement of the area.
For more information on the local context around post-war Wodonga, visit https://historywodonga.org.au/