National Growth Centre Experience Albury–Wodonga’s national growth centre experience derived from Australia’s decentralisation processes in the post-war era. Australia, at the time was seen to be borrowing the idea from British town and country planning which had developed from the Garden City concept. The 'New Towns' approach, as it was known, was a popular form of planning used in 1940–50’s UK to aid national decentralisation. The main features of the concept were the strengthening of neighbourhoods and civic centres, development of industrial zones and greenbelts. Meanwhile, in Australia, some began to term the new development as 'satellite towns' and emphasised the improved conditions around housing, more open spaces and easier access to the countryside. Soon after, elements of the 'new towns' could be found in metropolitan planning strategies in Australian cities such as Canberra and Elizabeth. By the 1970’s the concept was adopted by the Whitlam government who took up the idea as a national urban development policy, and nominated a range of cities to be affected, some pre-existing (Albury–Wodonga, Bathurst-Orange) and others to be developed (Monarto). Both the Commonwealth and State governments were involved in the strategies to accelerate the growth of Albury–Wodonga. Together they established the Albury–Wodonga Development Corporation which held mandates for local land development, economic and community planning and reafforestation and for the overall implementation of the project. Strategies for relocation From a Commonwealth perspective there was a desire to relocate public servants from larger cities such as Canberra and Sydney to Albury–Wodonga due to concerns around rising costs in highly populated urban areas. Further support came from the AWDC who, in turn, offered high standard rental housing and support for key transferred public servants and developed an innovative newcomer program to help those transferred and their families. Despite these efforts, a high-level of public service relocation did not take place. However, Albury–Wodonga was, successful in establishing an Australia Tax Office bureau and today still has a large number of defence jobs as a result of a major logistics centre development and training school set up by the federal government. Universities and corporate decentralisation were also seen as a way to grow a prosperous urban area. The establishment of a university would not only increase the number of jobs but also expand the occupational breadth in the workforce. A university would provide access to tertiary education for rural and regional students and limit the loss of