Wodonga

Under the Köppen climate classification, Wodonga has a humid subtropical climate (Cfa). The city gets around 125.1 clear days annually.

Leonard Hubbard recorded the song Wodonga in 1924.[7]

The World's Biggest Rolling Pin (listed in the Guinness Book of World Records) is located in Wodonga, atop "Henri's Bakery".[8]

Like much of country Victoria, Wodonga has a large and valued sporting culture. There are many sporting grounds in, and around, the area, and they are often frequented by the public in a social manner, when not being used for organised sport.

There are three Australian rules football clubs in Wodonga, the Wodonga Football Club, the Wodonga Raiders Football Club and the Wodonga Saints Football Club. Wodonga and Wodonga Raiders compete in the Ovens & Murray Football League, while the Wodonga Saints compete in the Tallangatta & District Football League. There are many other sporting clubs in the region. Brisbane Lions dual-premiership player Daniel Bradshaw and celebrated St. Kilda forward Fraser Gehrig are originally from Wodonga.

Wodonga is also home to a number of cricket clubs which compete in the Cricket Albury Wodonga (CAW) competition. These include the Belvoir Eagles, Wodonga Bulldogs and Wodonga Raiders.

Cyclists are catered for by the Albury Wodonga Cycling Club.[9] The Albury Wodonga Cycling Club holds club races most weekends, is part of the Riverina Interclub and hosts the annual John Woodman Memorial Wagga to Albury Cycling Classic.

Golfers play the course at SS&A Wodonga on Parkers Road.[10]

Wodonga has two rugby league clubs called the Wodonga Storm and Wodonga Wombats that play in the Murray Cup.

Australian Socceroos Archie Thompson and Joshua Kennedy played for soccer team Twin City Wanderers as children. Wodonga Diamonds Football Club and Wodonga Heart Football Club are two other soccer clubs based in Wodonga. All three clubs compete in the Albury Wodonga Football Association. In early 2014, a new club representing the region and playing its games in Wodonga was founded as Murray United F.C.. It is currently competing in the National Premier Leagues Victoria 3 for season 2020.[11]

Wodonga's Tennis Centre is the largest inland tennis complex in Australia and incorporates not only tennis but also croquet and lawn bowls. The Centre has 32 natural grass courts, 8 synthetic grass courts with lights for night use, and 10 plexicushion courts with lights for night use.

Wodonga has a horse racing club, the Wodonga & District Turf Club, which schedules around seven race meetings a year including the Wodonga Cup meeting in November.[12]

Wodonga also has a BMX club, which is situated in a complex near the home ground of local AFL team, Wodonga Raiders.

Wodonga has a radio-controlled car site with both on-road and off-road tracks on the Lincoln Causeway.

Major secondary industries based in Wodonga include a logistics distributions hub (LOGIC), a large cattle market, a pet food factory (Mars Petcare), a can factory (Visy), a cardboard box factory (Visy Board), a hydraulic hose manufacturer (Parker Hannifin), an abattoir, a foundry (Bradken Limited), a polypropylene film manufacturer (Taghleef Industries (formerly Shorko) a concrete pipe & pole manufacturer (Rocla) and a transformer manufacturer (Wilson Transformer Company) as well as a variety of other smaller enterprises. It also serves as a central point for the delivery of government services to the surrounding region.

It houses the Australian corporate headquarters for Mars Corp. Wodonga is the site of an Australian Army logistics base and a training centre for Army technical apprentices, the Army Logistic Training Centre, which is based at Latchford Barracks and Gaza Ridge Barracks.[13] It is also the home of a campus of La Trobe University and Wodonga Institute of TAFE.

Several experiments in cross-border governance in an attempt to bring the cities of Albury and Wodonga together have been tried. (See Albury–Wodonga for details.)

v2food is set to open a manufacturing plant, the will use locally-grown ingredients, in Wodonga in the second quarter of 2020.[14]

A daily tabloid owned by Fairfax Media, the Border Mail, is printed in Wodonga. The Border Mail has offices in both Albury and Wodonga.

Wodonga is part of the Albury-Wodonga/Murray/North-East Victoria television market and has access to all major TV networks. Channels available include Prime7 (part of the Seven Network), WIN Television (part of Network Ten), Southern Cross Nine (part of the Nine Network ), as well as the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) and the Special Broadcasting Service, more commonly known as SBS. Several of these networks also offer additional digital-only channels, including ABC2, ABC3, ABC News 24, SBS Two, 7Two, 7mate, One, Eleven, 9Gem and 9Go!.

Two television news bulletins featuring local content are offered in Albury-Wodonga and the surrounding region. Prime7 broadcasts its bulletin live at 6.00pm from studios in Canberra. WIN Television's bulletin is produced in Ballarat but features Albury-Wodonga region based content, and airs on delay at 6.30pm. Southern Cross Ten also provides short local news updates which are produced in Shepparton, Victoria, however, these do not feature significant local content from the Albury-Wodonga region.

There are three commercial radio stations broadcasting into Wodonga that are based over the border in Albury, namely 1494 2AY, Triple M The Border 105.7, and Hit104.9. Notably, Hit FM south eastern network is programmed out of the Albury/Wodonga Hub, going to centres around New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania and into South Australia. Broadcast out of the same building as Triple M The Border, which is also networked to local stations around New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania and South Australia.

Albury/Wodonga is one radio market, thus advertisements are directed to both sides of the border. The Albury/Wodonga market underwent significant change in 2005 when Macquarie Southern Cross Media bought 105.7 The River from RG Capital Radio Network, and 2AY and Star FM from the DMG Radio Australia. Due to cross-media ownership laws preventing the ownership of more than two stations in one market, Macquarie was required to sell one of these stations and in September 2005 sold 2AY to the Ace Radio network. 2AY takes its night time programming from the Macquarie Radio Network. Commercial radio stations from Wangaratta (3NE, Edge FM) can also be received in most parts of Wodonga.

The ABC produces breakfast and morning radio programs through its local radio network, from the studios of ABC Goulburn Murray located in Wodonga on 106.5FM. The rest of their content is delivered from Melbourne. The ABC also deliver ABC Radio National, ABC Classic FM, and Triple J on 103.3 FM.

There is also a community radio station known as 2REM 107.3 FM. The Albury-Wodonga Community Radio station plays a large number of speciality programs including those for the retiree, ethnic and aboriginal communities throughout the day and a range of musical styles including underground and independent artists from 8:00pm onwards.

In addition, the area is serviced by a Radio for the Print Handicapped station, 2APH, on 101.7 FM. Other stations include the Albury-Wodonga Christian Broadcasters' 98.5 The Light,[15] and the dance formatted narrowcaster RawFM on 87.6 FM.

Wodonga water tower and War Memorial at Woodland Grove

Wodonga railway station lies on the Melbourne–Albury and Melbourne–Sydney lines (although the Melbourne to Sydney Line does not stop at Wodonga). A new line was officially opened in late 2010, for which the town held a celebratory day for the last commercial passenger train to pass through the town centre.[16] This line took the rail network away from the centre of town (and removed the level crossing), and instead a new station was built and the rail is now on a bridge over to Albury Station.

Wodonga is on the junction of the Hume Highway (the main route from Melbourne to Sydney) and the Murray Valley Highway (which follows the southern bank of the Murray River).

Local public transport is provided by Dysons (which took over Mylon Motorways) who run buses on a number of routes both within Wodonga and to Albury.[17] Bus services are generally quite infrequent and public transport use in Wodonga is very low. There are also long-distance bus services to the capitals.

There is a comprehensive network of bicycle paths in Wodonga, including one across the Lincoln Causeway to Albury.

Albury Airport, which provides scheduled commuter flights to Melbourne and Sydney, is a short drive from Wodonga.