SPEECH BY THE PRIME MINISTER, MR. E. G. WHITLAM, M. P.
AT THE ALBURY TRADE FAIR SATURDAY 21 JULY, 1973
I am glad of the opportunity to visit the Albury Trade
Fair ( this year entitled " New Cities Expo ' 73" 1) and speak to you
tonight. The scope and quality of the Fair and certainly its
title are an encouraging symbol of what we hope to achieve in
this, our first growth centre4
I first spoke at Albury more than three years ago. At
the opening of the 38th Annual Conference of Rotary International
I suggested that Albury/ Wodonga would be a perfect place for a new
city. When we were elected we wasted no time in setting about to
fulfil that promise. It is just six months since I met with the
Premier of Victoria, Mr. Hamer, and the Premier of New South Wales,
Sir Robert Asking here, and we agreed on the proposal to create
a new Australian city.
There is, of course, no such thing as an " instant" city.
In sensitive planning areas pat solutions must be suspect. However,
although some of you may feel that there has been little tangible
evidence of the new project, if you examine what has been done over
this time, you will realise that w~ e have built a very sound base on
which the area will grow.
My colleague, the Australian Minister for Urban and
Regional Development, Tom Uren, outlined our achievements to you on
Thursday night. One of the most satisfying of these is the way in
which the three governments have worked in such harmony on the
project. He also explained the organisation which will be set up
to undertake the planning and development of the growth complex..
hope that this wil~ l have answered any questions or doubts you will
have had on this subject.
The Ministerial Council made up of Mr. Uren, the New
South Wales Minister for Decentralisation and Development, Mr.
Fuller, and the Victorian Minister for State Development and
Decentralisation and Development, Mr. Byrne, has agreed that the.
development organisation will be established before the end of this
year. I support this timetable and the Australian Government will
do everything within its power to see that enabling legislation
is passed in the forthcoming session of the Australian Parliament.
The Australian Government believes that the last election
was won largely because of the apalling lack of foresight which has
led to the congestion and strangling snarl of unplanned growth in
our cities, By the creation of Albury/ Wodonga; by the development
of other new cities and growth area, by concentrating on alleviating
the problems of people in the worst hit western areas of Sydney
and Melbourne; by the creation of land commissions and by making
federal money more immediately available to local, government, we
believe we will be able to bring order back into the lives of urban
dwelling Australians.
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The Australian Government cannot do the job on its own,
particularly in view of constitutional limitations on its power.
To carry out projects such as Albury/ Wodonga the Australian
Government has to work in close co-operation with the States and
local instrumentalities. The new Department of Urban and Regional Development will
have the responsibility for developing and implementing a national
urban and regional development strategy as a major policy area of
the Australian Government. It will also have the responsibility for
negotiating with, advising and helping state and local governments
in the preparation and implementation of urban and regional plans.
With the chief co-ordination and policy-making role in
the area of urban and regional development lying with the Department,
it will be the Cities Commission which will be chiefly responsible
for the physical development of Albury/ Wodonga. The Commission is
also under the control of the Minister for Urban and Regional
Development and is linked to the Department.
One of the main ways in which the Australian Government
will be helping the States in the development of Albury/ Wodonga
is with money. It will finance land acquisition and land
development by interest-bearing advances although in the long
term I believe that this growth complex will be self-supporting.,
At present we cannot expect New South Wales and Victoria
to switch resources quickly to Albury/ Wodonga in fields like
education and health while there are backlogs elsewhere in the
States. Certain existing municipal services will need to be
supplemented and in this respect special federal grants or longterm
loans will be made available in the early years. Nevertheless
in keeping with the tripartite nature of the enterprise, the
Victorian and New South Wales Governments will be providing services
to keep pace with the accelerated growth of Albury/ Wodonga beyond
this initial phase.:
The development of Albury/ Wodonga has been accorded high
priority by the Australian Government this year and this will be
reflected in the forthcoming budget.
We reali~ e, of course, that in the development of any new
area there are a multitude of problems to be overcome. With
planning and co-operation between the Australian Government, the
Governments of the two States of Victoria and New South Wales and
local government in the regions, we are confident we will overcome
them. One of the problems which has been aired frequently in
the press and by people in the area is the problem of the rising
price of land. To deal with one aspect of this, the Premiers of
Victoria and New South Wales and I agreed after a meeting at
Albury/ Wodonga on 25 January that the price of land to be acquired
for the purposes of the project would be based at the market level
of prices prevailing at 3 October last year. This means that the land
which the Governments will acquire is stabilised not frozen at
that price. Any necessary adjustments will be made for general
land price changes during the period up to the date of purchase,
caused by factors apart from the announcement of the development
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of the area. In this way we have ensured that no profit is made
merely because the area is to be developed, but that those whose
land is to be acquired will not suffer because of this. Legislation
to implement this decision was introduced into the Victorian
Parliament -in June and will be debated in the Upper House in the
spring session of Parliament. New South Wales expects to introduce
complementary legislation within the same session.
Officers from the Cities Commission have recently been
investigating the whole land question in Albury/ Wodonga. They have
been looking into land availability, the extent to which land is
changing hands : in Albury/ Wodonga and the pressures on existing land,
housing and social infrastructure. We must find out what the facts
are before we can contemplate what action is to be taken.
Today no-one debunks the idea of decentralisation.
However, some people are still dubious about the idea of the
development of inland cities. Australians, they say, want to live
on the coas-t, and they point to the growth in the coastal cities.
It has always been beyond me how people who have to travel for two
hours through weekend traffic to get to the crowded city beaches
can claim to be living on the coast. Whatever relaxation and
regeneration they can claim from this trip to the sea must be
dissipated in the tedious crawl through the traffic to get there
and back. Many Australians liv ng in large " coastal" cities
cannot truly be said to be living by the sea. It takes them as
long to reach the sea as it takes the citizens of that first
successful Australian inland growth centre Canberra. We expect
with the development of Albury/ Wodonga to dissipate this great
coastal cringe and return to something of the feeling of the early
settlers who set off to populate the inland of this vast tract of
earth they had come to occupy.
Much has been said of the advantages of choosing Albury/
Wodonga for our first designated growth centre; its positions on a
major inter-capital link; its present state of development; its
happy incorporation of two States. But I feel that few people yet
realise the advantages to its present and future residents in terms
of what is offering in the surrounding inland countryside. At the
risk of sounding like a tourist guide I suggest that those who might
flinch at the thought of leaving the recreational facilities of their
" 1coastal" cities might consider the enormous scope for activities
like fishing, climbing, walking, ski-ing, canoe-ing and sailing
offered by Albury/ Wodongals proximity to some splendid mountains,
rivers and Lake Hume. For those with an interest in Australian
history nearby towns like Beechworth in Victoria have preserved and
still have in use an almost overwhelming number of buildings
classified by the National Trust. Now that the Government has
established a committee of inquiry into the national estate chaired
by Mr. Justice Hope we would hope that the respect for history
prevailing in such towns will be given an opportunity to prevail
through the rest of Australia, And for those who like their
pleasures somewhat more full-bodied there are of course the
vinyards of the Rutherglen and Glenrowan areas*
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It is this accessibility to a variety of activities which
makes Albury/ Wodonga a satisfying place, in addition to the simple
advantage of living in a smaller and well-planned community.
Compare this with the isolation from most of the benefits of the
city suffered by people living in the sprawling outer suburbs of
Sydney and Melbourne suburbs which are increasingly the only
ones available to young couples who want to buy their own homes.
We spoke of quality of life in the last national
elections. We belieye that the creation of Albury/ Wodonga, along
with other growth centres, will prove a step which will vastly
improve the quality of life of thousands of Australians over the
next few decadeso