www.awnw.com.au
Issue #258 – Wednesday, 12 November, 2014
Albury Wodonga’s largest circulating newspaper
Girls go mudslingers Long gone are the days of a bit of clean fun. Sweat, foam, and mud were just some of the obstacles thousands of women faced during the weekend’s Miss Muddy challenge to raise funds for a good cause. TO SEE ALL THE SMILES AND ACTION, TURN TO PAGE 30.
End brings closure By ERIN SOMERVILLE
Albury-Wodonga Corporation’s Property Officer Nina Merrilees, Asset Manager Graeme Hiskins, and Administration and Safety officer Sue Picture: ERIN SOMERVILLE Standfield racked up 78 years of service before saying goodbye in December. 130564 industrial lots remain from the corporation’s previous development activities. Mr Hiskins said the region will be able to grow and develop without AWC.
“Albury Wodonga doesn’t need it, councils are well equipped to do that now. “I think where (the city) is going at the moment is good, but the biggest thing is employment still has to be created.”
The biggest challenge the team of five now faces is closing down the corporation in only seven weeks. “We were only told two weeks ago. “We can not do it properly in an orderly fashion.”
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has been reduced from 6400 hectares in 2005 when the corporation was directed to cease land development activity and focus on land disposal, to just 986 hectares as of 31 October this year. About 80 developed residential and
DEMPS TE R
WHEN Albury-Wodonga Corporation closes its doors at the end of this year, Asset Manager Graeme Hiskins will be five months shy of his 40th anniversary with the company. Having started with the corporation in May 1975, shortly after it was launched by the Whitlam Government, Mr Hiskins has seen the twin city grow, develop, and evolve into the place it is today. Mr Hiskins, along with the team’s four other staff members, have been preparing for a closure date in 2015 after the program was recently axed by the Federal Government but were caught offguard when they were told earlier this month that the corporation’s doors would close for good on 31 December. He admits it is time for the corporation to go but said it had done wonderful things for Albury Wodonga during its time on the Border. “It has been been just fantastic,” he said. “It has been behind the newsprint mill at Ettamogah and provided short term accommodation for starting businesses. “We had industrial units for those starting in the industry to branch out, and is where (engineering company) J.C. Butko started off, and it is still here and a big employer. “It was a Whitlam dream, but the figures that were quoted of a 300,000 population by 2000 didn’t eventuate.” Since being established by the Albury-Wodonga Development Act 1973, the corporation has developed more than 6000 residential lots and invested $149 million into the region. The corporation once employed up to 130 people at a time in its earlier days to achieve the government’s plan to accelerate disposal of land and gain an appropriate financial return. The AWC’s undeveloped land bank
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