Planning crucial as our population climbs

Recently the Australian Bureau of Statistics released its Estimated Resident Population (ERP) data for the 2022-23 financial year.

It showed a 1.5% increase in the Albury population to 57,517 between June 2022 and June 2023, equating to 852 additional residents.

This represents one of Albury’s largest annual increases, illustrating our strength and attractiveness as a city and the need to continue to plan for and deliver infrastructure and services to support our growing community.

Similarly, Wodonga recorded 560 new residents, an increase of 1.3%, for a total of 44, 276, making a population total for Albury-Wodonga of 101,793.

One of the fastest areas of growth for Albury is the Thurgoona-Wirlinga area. Its population has almost doubled in the last 10 years, from 6,500 to 11,300, and is expected to increase to 50,000 by 2070.

Last month we started phase 2 community consultation on our review of the 2013 Thurgoona-Wirlinga Precinct Structure Plan with the release of a discussion paper and a series of face-to-face and online engagement opportunities.

This review's aim is to update the original plan in line with changed community expectations, planning policies and technical assessments.

The response to our consultation has been encouraging, and it’s pleasing to see a strong community interest in taking up opportunities to provide input.

There is still a chance to provide feedback, with the consultation period closing this Sunday, 21 April.

You can go to our Have Your Say page to download and read the discussion paper, watch a video presentation and take the online survey. Alternatively, you can email the City Planning team at info@alburycity.nsw.gov.au.

Once we have all your feedback, we will move into phase 3 of the project, which will be to consider the input received, amend the plan and place it on public exhibition as a draft for further community consultation.

With such strong growth expected in this part of our city, it’s important that we continue to be on the front foot with our planning activities and take on board our community’s views as together we build our nationally significant regional capital.