Circa 1928 hotel puts boutique in border town of Albury
A long list of luminaries has made whistle-stop visits to the city of Albury over the decades.
A long list of luminaries has made whistle-stop visits to the border city of Albury over the decades. Authors Mark Twain and Agatha Christie and military generals Douglas MacArthur and John Monash are among those forced to change trains at its grand railway station before NSW and Victoria standardised their rail gauges in 1962.
But, while it may be tempting to give Albury only a passing glance, it’s worth planning a longer break when restrictions are lifted to explore this busy regional centre and its Victorian twin city of Wodonga, which straddle the mighty Murray River.
In recent years, the accommodation scene in Albury has been bolstered with properties run by Quest, Mantra and Atura. The debut of luxury hotel and spa Circa 1928 last year has taken the local offering up multiple notches, giving visitors the option of a boutique experience in the heart of Albury.
Housed in the former Commonwealth Bank building on tree-lined Dean Street, the hotel’s columned facade gives little clue to the offering inside. You’ll find dark polished floors, high coffered ceilings, artistic light fittings and the peaceful sounds of Balinese gamelan music, a nod to co-owner Ririn Yaxley’s Indonesian heritage. Ririn and her husband, Kevin, opened Circa 1928 last July, building on their first hotel, Circa 1936, in nearby Corowa. With their combined spa and hotel experience, the couple bring an eye for detail and an obvious passion to their Albury property, which features just two generous 60sq m suites and a tranquil spa.
We spend the night in the Dean Suite, decorated in tribute to Australian artist Pro Hart given his 1928 birth year, and featuring a blend of midcentury-style pieces and Indonesian antiques, including a coffee table fashioned from a teak rice crusher. The bathroom is suitably expansive, offering a rain shower and a large copper bath beside a stained-glass window inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright. A massive black vault door serves as a reminder that this space was once the bank manager’s office.
Downstairs is a small gallery and the spa, where guests and locals can indulge in luxurious facials and massages as well as a more unusual offering, a traditional Javanese ratus smoking ceremony for women only. With the spa so accessible and a raft of inviting extras covered by the tariff, including evening club lounge drinks and a nightcap delivered to your suite, there are plenty of reasons to cocoon at Circa 1928, but it would be a shame to miss out on Albury’s other offerings.
The historic walking tour is a self-guided experience highlighting more than 20 landmark buildings positioned along the wide streets of Albury, once shortlisted as a site for the nation’s capital. From the post office, built in 1877 in the Victorian free classical style, through to the four-storey 1940 T&G Building inspired by New York skyscrapers, there’s plenty to admire.
You can easily lose an hour or two in the Murray Art Museum Albury, a contemporary offering on the site of the old Town Hall that surprises with its thoughtful collection of works by Australian artists. Head west along Dean Street to the Botanic Gardens, a verdant 4ha opened in 1877 and designed for the times in the form of the Union Jack.
If you’re looking for bush beauty, hire a bike and hit the tracks around Albury and Wodonga. A must is the Wagirra Trail, which includes the Yindyamarra Sculpture Walk, showcasing 11 beautiful works by local Aboriginal artists.
It’s an easy ride, which provides a stunning front-row seat to birdlife. On the morning we visit, pelicans perch high in the trees while ducks wade in calm waters filled with the blue of the skies. At the end of the trail there’s the wonderful Wonga Wetlands, a man-made ecosystem of lagoons and billabongs, cleverly created from Albury’s reclaimed water treatment systems and spread across 80ha. Bikes aren’t permitted here, but there are several walking tracks.
It was the warbling of the magpies that caught the attention of some of the postwar migrants as they arrived at the Bonegilla Migrant Reception and Training Centre, about 10km outside Wodonga, after their long journey from Europe. Now a national heritage-listed site staffed by passionate guides, the centre offers fascinating insights into the midcentury migration program and contentious White Australia policy that reshaped our society.
Stretching over 24 sprawling blocks, Bonegilla temporarily housed more than 300,000 migrants, most from non-English-speaking European countries, from 1947 to 1971. Today the one remaining block, No 19, is a poignant place for the estimated one in 20 Australians who have a familial connection to the centre. In several rooms the walls are covered with note paper, where former residents and their descendants have jotted fascinating snippets of their first impressions of Australia. There are no rose-coloured glasses here; the centre is often damned for its austere quarters and boring food, with mutton on high rotation.
Fortunately, Bonegilla menus are a far cry from the culinary offering for today’s visitors to the region. In Albury you can find good cafes and restaurants serving local produce, such as The Proprietor, housed in one of Townsend Street’s historic buildings. There’s a hipster vibe at Piccolo Pod coffee shop in Abercrombie Lane and Temperance and General, a small bar nearby.
But it’s the waterfront River Deck Cafe that’s the show stopper. Set in Noreuil Park overlooking the Murray, it combines gorgeous views with striking food, like my beautifully presented breakfast of Mansfield trout with poached eggs and herbs. Locals also nominate Miss Amelie in the former Wodonga railway station as a must, along with the nearby Goods Shed.
And from Albury it’s only a half-hour drive to the wonderful wineries and cellar doors of Beechworth and Rutherglen. You just might have to stay a while longer to see it all.
Libby Moffet was a guest of Circa 1928 and Visit AlburyWodonga.
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Travel + Indulgence recognises our readers are extremely limited in their opportunities to travel during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, we also know you are avid planners who like to file away ideas for future journeys, both in Australia and abroad. T+I will continue to feature destinations that may not be accessible now but, we hope, will soon be back on the agenda.
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