Albury & District Historical Society

OUR NEXT MEETING, next Wednesday, 7.30 pm, June 10 at the Commercial Club.
‘Albury’s first German arrivals.’ On May 12 it was 175 years since the arrival in Albury in 1851 of Johann (John) Frauenfelder, Sebastian Schubach and Heinrich (Henry) Rau. They were Albury’s first German residents. Within a very short time they pioneered the wine industry in our district. We will hear from family descendants the legacy of these three families and their contributions to our local heritage over the past 175 years.
Photo: Johann Frauenfelder
All Welcome

Richard Rankin took over the Globe’s license in 1908. The Globe’s owner, Patrick Fallon, died in 1907 and Rankin bought the hotel for 11,000 pounds from the Fallon estate in 1911. He built the Dean street extension in 1913. Rankin sold the Globe license in 1919. This dates the ‘Then’ photo to somewhere between 1913 and 1919. For more detail on the Globe Hotel, see “The Globe Hotel, Such a Nice Place”, by Howard Jones and available at the Albury LibraryMuseum in Kiewa street.
The sign ‘Abbotsford the Best Ale’ possibly hung from the verandah of the original Albion Hotel.

The ‘Then’ photo has the Albury Railway Bridge with its decorative but non-functional pillars above deck level and before the chords were extended in the 1960s. The chords are now further raised with steel stanchions to allow for double-stacked freight trains to pass through.
In June 1883, the Sydney to Melbourne link was completed when a temporary railway bridge across the Murray River was opened. The permanent bridge was opened in August 1884. The steel structure was fabricated in London and shipped to Australia for assembly.

The corner of Dean and Townsend streets. The changes to the streetscape have been dominated by the Commercial Club.
Jacob’s Foodliner was Albury’s first self-service grocery store. On October 21, 1953 the ‘Border Morning Mail’ reported “ALBURY HAS IT! Latest test in self-service stores. An experiment in the latest methods of grocery selling, the self-service store has been successfully tried by Mr L Jacobs, Dean St, Albury. Modernisation of premises and use of new fittings should make the business one of the most streamlined and efficient grocery stores in NSW. Goods are prepacked and placed on shelves and arranged so that shoppers enter on one side, choose their goods and pass a cash register on the other side, where they pay for their purchases before leaving.”

A view of Albury taken in 1888 from Western Hill (now known as Monument Hill) looking north east(ish). The Albury Gaol faced Thurgoona street. It was built in 1861 where Cahill Place and St John’s retirement village now stand. It was extended in 1879-81. It was officially closed in 1943, but the Army used it during the World War II as a lock-up. After the war it fell derelict and became a playground for kids until it was demolished in 1947.
Beyond the gaol, on the corner of Pemberton street was the Albury District Hospital. The land this side of the gaol was the site of the first Albury Showgrounds.
More details at https://alburyhistory.org.au/resources/

The plaque recognising action by the Albury Battery defending the French town of Noreuil. For a video description of the Battle of Noreuil and a message from the Mayors of both Noreuil, France and Albury, go to Albury & District Historical Society’s YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDzIPypinJegksrO-l2ssVg. Lest We Forget.

An AI sharpened image of Charles Schmiedt’s Albury Hotel on the south side of Dean street, west of Kiewa street. Schmiedt started in the Bridge Hotel near the Union Bridge (the derelict building remains there in 2026). He moved to the Albion before building his Albury Hotel, opened in November 1876 to a design by John Gordon, the hotel contained 15 rooms. Within twelve months, new rooms were added to cater for the Albury Club which had selected the hotel as its home. In 1882 stabling and “commodious sampling rooms for use by commercial travellers” were provided. The Albury Club moved to their own premises in 1883 and Schmiedt added a second storey to the hotel’s single storey section. The hotel license was moved to the New Albury Hotel in 1939.

'Albury's Historic Riverside' - the Murray River at Albury is a much loved place for locals and visitors to come together. But it is much more than a peaceful and restful place. Why is the river of such significance to the people of Albury? What significance does the place hold for First Nations people? You will find some answers to these questions in this 36 minute video - go to https://youtu.be/mahRv5RCRMw

Albury’s Union Bridge. The first bridge was opened with lots of ceremony on September 2, 1861. The building contractors were local businessmen, Americans William Brickell and Adam Kidd, the contract price £7,046. https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/264149304
In the ‘Then’ photo, the wooden trusses and piers of the original 1861 bridge can be seen behind the second Union Bridge, under construction in 1898. The contractors for the second bridge were J B and W Farquharson, the contract price £6668. It had wooden trusses and decking and steel piers. The bridge opened with very little ceremony in December 1898. https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/99977464
The third and existing Union Bridge was opened in April 1961.

The ‘Then’ photo is from the early 1950s. Canns had by then been a popular drapery store in Dean street for many years. The store pictured opened in September 1952 after their original store was destroyed by fire in October 1951.
Next to Canns is the George Hotel. The George commenced trading in Dean street in April 1878. It was remodelled and rebuilt in 1938.
Further along the street is Town Hall Hotel which opened in 1881. It changed hands several times before closing in 1962 and its license was transferred to the Astor Hotel-Motel in Young street.
The T&G insurance building (Temperance and General) was completed in 1940.
Just across the AMP Lane is the AMP insurance building. It is the third AMP building on the site – the first was destroyed by fire in 1885, the second opened in 1886 and was knocked down for the current building which opened in July 1941.