Albury is a city in New South Wales, Australia, located on the Hume Highway on the northern side of the Murray River. It is located wholly within the boundaries of the City of Albury Local Government Area. Albury is the second major city of the Riverina and the second largest inland city in New South Wales, behind Wagga Wagga. Albury has a urban population of 43,787 people. It is separated from its twin city in Victoria, Wodonga by the Murray River. Together the two cities form an urban area with a population of approximately 74,000. It is approximately 588 kilometres (365 mi) from the state capital Sydney, but only 300 kilometres (190 mi) from the Victorian capital Melbourne. Albury is situated above the river flats of the Murray River, in the foothills of the Great Dividing Range. At the airport, Albury is 164 metres above sea level (539 ft).

Climate
Albury has a warm, temperate, four-season climate, with cool to mild winters and very warm to hot summers. In summer, the mean daily maximum temperature is around 30 degrees Celsius with low humidity; however, this is subject to substantial daily variation. An average of 17 days with a maximum above 35 degrees Celsius occur in this summer period. Mean winter maximums are around 14 degrees Celsius. Frosts are commonplace in winter, with approximately 20 days per year featuring minimums of below freezing.

Albury's mean annual rainfall is about 701.3 millimetres, which is more than Melbourne but less than Sydney. Rain can occur all year round, but most of it falls in the winter months with July's high mean of 82.3 millimetres comparing with the March low of 37.9 millimetres.

The city itself comprises a number of suburbs.
Central Albury comprises the central business district (CBD) and lies between the railway line, the Murray River and Monument Hill. Much commercial activity is concentrated here, with Dean Street forming the axis of the main shopping and office district. A cultural precinct is centred around QE2 Square, including the Albury Library Museum, Albury Regional Art Gallery, Albury Performing Arts Centre and Convention Centre, and the Murray Conservatorium. In the same block are the Post Office, Police Station and Courthouse, as well St Matthew's Anglican Church which was rebuilt after being destroyed by fire in 1990. The Albury City council offices are located on Kiewa Street.

Forrest Hill lies directly north west and covers the saddle between Monument Hill and Nail Can Hill, whilst west over the ridge lies West Albury. West Albury is primarily a residential area, but it is home to the First World War Memorial (locally known as the Monument), Riverwood Retirement Village, Albury Wodonga Private Hospital (which lies on the corner of Pemberton Street and the Riverina Highway), and the Albury sewerage treatment plant. All of West Albury was once wetland and bush. The only remnant of this is Horseshoe Lagoon to the south-west of the suburb, which has been declared a Wildlife Refuge by NSW Parks & Wildlife and incorporated into the Wonga Wetlands. To the north-west of West Albury is Pemberton Park.

East Albury lies east of the railway line/freeway from the CBD and houses cover the Eastern Hill alongside the Albury Base Hospital, while the flat land directly north of it is covered by parkland, housing and light industry, and a retail park including Harvey Norman and Spotlight franchises, as well as the city airport. The Mungabareena Reserve lies on the Murray south of the airport, and is considered an Aboriginal cultural site of some significance. Mungabareena means "place of plenty talk" in the Wiradjuri language.
South Albury is a mix of residential and industrial areas, with the floodplains south of the railway line and freeway still used for farming and grazing. Flood mitigation works in the 1990s have dramatically reduced the risk of flooding in the residential areas of South Albury.

North Albury was once covered by orchards and vineyards in the first half of the 20th century, as was a swamp where the James Fallon High School now stands, but after the second world war housing development in the area increased and Waugh Road was extended from David Street to the "Five Ways" intersection at Union Road, which ascribes the border between North Albury and Lavington. The locality of Glenroy is adjacent to North Albury, west of the Bungambrawartha Creek, and housing development was developed in the 1970s, including a significant Housing Commission public housing estate.

Lavington is the largest suburb of Albury, and the only suburb which has its own postcode (2641, as opposed to 2640 for the balance of Albury). The suburb was originally named Black Ridge in the 1850s and 1860s, before being renamed Lavington in 1910.Originally within the boundaries of Hume Shire, it was absorbed into the City of Albury Local Government Area in the 1950s. Housing and commercial development has continued from that point until this day. Prior to 2007, the Hume Highway - also known as Wagga Road - passed north-east through the suburb, with Urana Road passing north-west though the suburb from the "Five Ways" or "Roundabout" road junction. In 2007, an internal bypass of the Hume Freeway was opened , with the former name of the Hume Highway section officially reverting to the commonly used "Wagga Road". The suburb of Lavington also includes the localities of Springdale Heights, Hamilton Valley and Norris Park. A lawn cemetery and crematorium lies at the western end of Union Road.

Thurgoona, to the east of Lavington, was established as a new residential suburb by the Albury Wodonga Development Corporation in the 1970s. In the 1990s a new campus of the Charles Sturt University was established here, as was an office of the Murray Darling Freshwater Research Centre. A major golf club known as the Thurgoona Country Club Resort is also situated in this suburb.
Further outlying localities include Splitters Creek - a small residential/farming community to the west, Ettamogah (home of the Ettamogah Pub and OZ.e.Wildlife sanctuary), Bowna and Table Top to the north, and Wirlinga and Lake Hume village to the east. Howlong (20 km west) and Jindera (16 km north) are the closest towns outside of the Albury city area, and act as commuter dormitories as well as service centres for the local rural industry.

Lake Hume
Lake Hume is situated on the Murray River 10 kilometres upstream of Albury. The Hume Dam (colloquially termed the Weir locally) wall construction took 17 years, from 1919-1936. A hydro-electric power plant supplies 60 MW of power to the state grid. When full the lake covers 80 square kilometres.
The lake was created for irrigation purposes and has caused significant changes to the flow patterns and ecology of the Murray River. Before the construction of the Hume Weir, flows in normal (non-drought) years were low in summer and autumn (though still significant overall), rising in winter due to seasonal rainfall and reaching a flood-peak in late spring due to snowmelt in the Murray and tributaries' alpine headwaters. The flow is effectively reversed now, with low flows in winter and sustained, relatively high flows in late spring, summer and early autumn to meet irrigation demands, although the spring flood peak has been virtually eliminated. In addition, the water released from the base of the Hume Weir is un-naturally cold. This flow reversal, temperature depression and removal of the spring flood peak has led to the drying out and loss of many billabongs and has harmed the populations of native fish of the Murray River such as the iconic Murray Cod.

Transport
Road
Situated on the old Hume Highway, Albury is a major transit point for interstate commerce. From March 2007, Albury was bypassed by the new Hume Freeway. The new freeway includes the new Spirit of Progress Bridge over the Murray River and cost $518 million, the most expensive road project ever built in regional Australia.
The other minor highways which connect to Albury are the Riverina Highway, which continues west through Berrigan to Deniliquin and east to Lake Hume; and the Olympic Highway (renamed from the Olympic Way) which diverges left from the Hume 16 km north of Albury, into the centre of NSW, passing through Wagga Wagga and terminating with the Mid-Western Highway at Cowra.

In 1888, the Smollett Street wrought iron arch bridge was constructed over Bungambrawatha Creek. Smollet Street was extended westward through the botanical gardens to give direct access from the Albury Railway Station to Howlong Road by a straight street. The bridge is near the botanic gardens and the local swimming pool. The bridge is a rare example of a metal arch bridge in New South Wales, and is the oldest of only two metal arch bridges in New South Wales, the other being the Sydney Harbour Bridge.Rail
Albury railway station is on the main Sydney-Melbourne railway line. Originally New South Wales and Victoria had different railway gauges, which meant that all travellers in either direction had to change trains at Albury. To accommodate this, a very long railway platform was needed; the 450 metre long covered platform is possibly the longest in Australia. The station is still served by two different rail gauges; the thrice daily broad gauge V/Line services from Melbourne as well as the standard gauge Countrylink XPT services to Sydney which run twice daily.

In 1873 the broad gauge (5 ft 3ins) railway line from Melbourne reached the township of Belvoir/Wodonga. In 1881 the New South Wales standard gauge (4 ft 8½ins) railway line reached Albury, with a railway bridge joining the two colonies in 1883. Albury became the stop over, where passengers on the Melbourne-Sydney journey changed trains until 1962, when a standard gauge was opened between the two capitals. After World War II in an attempt to overcome the difference in gauges and speed up traffic, a bogie exchange device lifted freight wagons and carriages allowing workers to refit rolling stock with different gauged wheel-sets.

The break of railway gauge at Albury was a major impediment to Australia's war effort and infrastructure during World Wars I and II; every soldier, every item of equipment and supplies were all off-loaded from the broad gauge and reloaded onto a standard gauge railway wagon on the opposite side of the platform. In his book Tramps Abroad, writer Mark Twain spoke of the break of gauge at Albury and changing trains... "Now comes a singular thing, the oddest thing, the strangest thing, the unaccountable marvel that Australia can show, namely the break of gauge at Albury. Think of the paralysis of intellect that gave that idea birth."(cited by Fisher below)
Military armouries and warehouses were established in the vicinity of Albury. Similar stores were also established at Tocumwal and Oaklands.

In 2007, (with a government's view that there was a decline of traffic on the broad gauge line) there are plans to convert this line to standard gauge at least from Seymour and obtain double track for the standard gauge. This plan received approval in May 2008.

Air
Albury Airport, owned and operated by the City of Albury, is the second busiest regional airport in New South Wales with around 300,000 passenger movements per year. The airport, 4 kilometres east of the city centre, has scheduled daily flights to Sydney and Melbourne through commercial carriers, QantasLink, Regional Express and Virgin Blue, in addition to several charter services. Brindabella Airlines flies to Canberra every day except Saturday. The ATA airport code for Albury is ABX. The road leading from Albury Airport to the city was re-named Borella Road in 1979, in honour of Victoria Cross recipient Albert Chalmers Borella, who was buried at Albury.
In 1934 a Dutch KLM DC-2 airliner (the "Uiver"), a competitor in the London to Melbourne Air Race, made an emergency night landing at the town's race-track after becoming lost during severe thunderstorms. After signalling by Morse code A-L-B-U-R-Y to the lost aircrew by using the entire town's public lighting system, the "Uiver" was guided in to land safely. The makeshift runway at the race-track was illuminated by the headlights of cars belonging to local residents who had responded to a special news bulletin on ABC Radio 2CO. After refuelling the next day, many local volunteers helped pull the stranded aircraft out of the race-track's mud and the aircraft was able to take off and continue to Melbourne where it won first prize in the MacRobertson London to Melbourne Air Race.
 

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