Lavington, New South Wales
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Lavington is a northern suburb of Albury, New South Wales, Australia about 20 km squared in area and a population of about 15 000 people.
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[edit] History
Before European settlement, Indigenous Australians who lived in the area were Wiradjuri. Once a prune-growing area, Lavington has slowly changed to become a locality with many shops and parks. Where once the township was centred around the Lavington Hall and the Lavington Public School, near where Urana Road crosses the Bungambrawartha Creek, as it became a suburb of Albury the shopping and business areas have concentrated around the junction of Griffith and Urana Roads.
The Indian traders that travelled through the Australian countryside often had their funeral pyres in the current location of Jelbart Park, which for this reason remains an open parkland with sporting fields. Later on, a misunderstanding during the housing development surrounding the Hume Public School resulted in many of the local streets being named after the nations of American "Indians", such as Cheyenne Crescent and Sioux Court, rather than those of the subcontinent.
Lavington was formerly part of the Hume Shire but was added to the City of Albury during the 1950s, with the old boundary between the two local government areas being ascribed by Union Road. Much of Albury's subsequent residential and industrial expansion has occurred in the Lavington locality, particularly after the establishment of the Albury-Wodonga Development Corporation in the early 1970s.
The Springdale Heights estate was built in the 1970s and the Norris Park and Hamilton Valley areas were established throughout the 1990s into the present day.
[edit] Geography
Lavington is a part of Albury-Wodonga and bordered by North Albury and Thurgoona. Lavington is near Jindera, Corowa/Rutherglen and Wangaratta.
The climate is temperate: hot in summer, maximum temperatures averaging in the high thirties Celsius and cold in winter, with maxima in the low teens.
Lavington's shopping centre is called Centro Lavington, after previously being named Border Shoppingtown, Lavington Square and Lavington Shopping Centre. It was originally a Big W complex when built in 1980 but was expanded in 2005 to include a variety of large business chains and a newly renovated food court that includes a Muffin Break, Starbucks and eatery chains.
There are many businesses in the Lavington area. Many businesses such as Big W are in the CBD. There are also smaller businesses such as Lavender Blue and Smokes and Gifts. Lavington contains butcheries, clubs, restaurants and supermarkets.
[edit] Sport
There are many sporting groups in Lavington including ones for soccer, Australian rules football, cricket, netball, softball, water polo, swimming and tennis. There is a BMX and skate park. Lauren Jackson, considered one of the best female basketball players in the world, grew up in Thurgoona, near Lavington.
The Nail Can Hill Run is an annual fun run that has been going for around 30 years. The event is usually held in early May and covers a hilly cross-country course of 11.3 km starting at Lavington Panthers Club, following the ridge of hills west of Lavington, Glenroy and Albury, eventually finishing at the war memorial monument in Albury. There is also a mountain bicycling race over the same course run on the same day.
The Lavington Panthers Oval, located in the suburb's west, is the Albury-Wodonga region's prominent sporting venue. In addition to being the home ground of the Lavington Panthers (formerly Blues) Australian rules football club who play in the Ovens & Murray Football League, it has hosted many AFL practice matches, the England v Zimbabwe fixture in the 1992 Cricket World Cup, one Sheffield Shield match between NSW and Victoria in 1989, and a couple of Australian Rugby League preseason grand finals during the mid-1990s, as well as other preseason games for the ARL and NRL competitions. Up until the 1980s, the Lavington Sports Carnival, incorporating the Lavington Gift, was staged at the ground.
[edit] Schools
Five primary schools and one secondary school lie within the suburb. The primary schools Lavington East, Lavington, Springdale Heights and Hume which are government schools, and Holy Spirit, which is a Catholic private school. Murray High School is the government secondary school.
