Albury Heritage Trail

Former Albury Town Hall

Built at a time when the district was beginning to boom as a result of closer settlement, the Town Hall (now the Regional Art Gallery) was a strong statement of civic pride, intended to show the 'energy, enterprise and grit' of a district recovering from harsh times at the beginning of the 20th Century. It was constructed by local artisans with money borrowed from local institutions and is a good example of the Federation Free Classical style.

Burrows House

Burrows House has served many purposes since it was built in the 1860s. It was the City Council offices in the 1960s and was also once the Crown Lands Office. It was later converted for community use and named Burrows House to honour Percy Burrows, the flour mill owner who was Albury's mayor in 1916. The facade is decorated with Greek Revival details in stucco work. The side facing the courthouse has a two-storey verandah and colonnade

Albury Botanic Gardens

The Botanic Gardens were first opened by Mayor William (Coffin) Jones in 1877.

The Gardens cover 10 acres and contain an award-winning collection of trees, shrubs and flowers. The tallest tree is a Queensland Kauri, which is 46 metres in height. The gates commemorate Robert Wilkinson, a draper, who was Albury's mayor from 1903 to 1905. The Gardens were originally laid out in straight lines in the form of a Union Jack. The first trees along Elm Avenue were planted in 1877. The Gardens were also the site of Albury's first bowling greens, which were laid in 1905 at the western end of the Gardens.

Albury Post Office

he imposing Albury Post Office, built in 1875, shows civic architectural qualities that make it an excellent starting point from which to view other civic buildings in Dean Street. Local builder Alexander Frew built the Post Office around an existing building. He included an arcaded verandah on Kiewa Street, which has since been filled in - the present open verandah is part of a later extension. The truncated clock tower, built of timber disguised as masonry, was added in the 1920s.

Old Farmers and Graziers Woolstore

The old Farmers and Graziers Woolstore was once Australia's largest inland woolstore. Originally it had a 104-metre frontage to Smollett Street. In 1933 Louis Harrison, designer of the Albury Monument, redesigned the building to incorporate the hotel and theatre next door to it. By 1962 the floor space totalled 6.8 acres and could display 12,000 bales of wool.  The Woolstore is a strong reminder of the importance of the wool trade in the development of our region and of Australia.

Albury Pioneer Cemetery

The Albury Pioneer Cemetery was opened in 1860. The multicultural history of Albury is evident here: the graves of people of all nations, including England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, Germany, Ukraine, Latvia, Syria, India and China as well as Australia, can be found within the Cemetery. In 1988 the NSW National Trust classified the Albury Pioneer Cemetery as an outstanding item of environmental heritage that records much of the history of Albury. An exceptional range of marble and granite monuments is on display at the Cemetery and there is some interesting ironwork made locally by John L McEachern and L Schneider.

St Matthews Church

St Mathews Church is arguably Albury's best item of architectural and historic interest. It combines Edmund Blacket's original west wall and tower base of 1857-59, William Boles' chancel, completed in 1876, and the rebuilt church, designed by Ian O'Connor after the church was gutted by fire in September 1991. Hundreds of Albury residents made this last refurbishment possible. Edmund Blacket, who designed the original church, was a noted colonial architect - he also designed the University of Sydney and St Saviour's Cathedral in Goulburn.

The Hovell Tree

The Hovell Tree bears a mark made by explorer Captain William Hovell in 1824 while mapping the western rivers of New South Wales. It is the first evidence of the presence of Europeans in the Albury region. The Hovell Tree was once flanked by another tree marked by Hovell's fellow explorer Hamilton Hume; however, it was destroyed by fire in the 1840s. Starting out from the Yass area, Hume and Hovell travelled south and crossed the Murray River at Albury. They ended their travels at Corio Bay in Victoria.

Monument Hill War Memorial

The Monument Hill War Memorial is one of the best-known memorial towers in Australia. The Monument is the result of a proposal by a visiting town planner, Charles Reade, in 1915 to erect a monument on the western hill to memorialise soldiers fallen in combat. The Monument was designed by Louis Harrison, built by Tom Bartleson and opened by General Paine on Anzac Day, 1925. The nearby Memorial Bowl was erected as a World War II memorial

Hume Dam

The Hume Dam project was one of the most ambitious projects of the interwar years in Australia. Along with the Sydney Harbour Bridge, the Hume Dam is one of the mightiest pieces of construction of the period. It was one of the first great intergovernmental cooperative projects facilitated by Federation. The Dam, formed by a structure 1,616 metres wide, was intended to ensure an unceasing water supply to irrigation districts and towns along the Murray from Albury to the sea, and to Adelaide. At its peak, 1,000 men were employed on the project. Horses, steam engines and much manual labour were used, including the hand-to-hand passing of rock. Nine lives were lost during the construction of the Dam. The Hume Dam was completed in 1936 and had a capacity of 1,522 gigalitres. Between 1950 and 1961, its capacity was increased to 3,038 gigalitres as a result of the erection of gates above the Dam. A hydro-electric power station was added in 1957.

Albury Railway Station

The Albury Railway Station was a confident colonial Government's counter to the intrusion of Victorian railways into the border district in the highly competitive 1870s and 1880s. Its designers seemed to be declaring, 'Look on this monument, Victorians, and despair'. This was once one of Australia's most important railway stations. It was built in 1881 as the transfer point on the break in the rail gauge halfway between Sydney and Melbourne. Designed in the grand Italianate manner under the direction of NSW Government Railways Chief Engineer John Whitton, it is symmetrically arranged over 300 metres in length. The covered platform is one of the longest in Australia, rivalling Flinders Street Station in Melbourne.