Riverina - Cities, Towns and Settlements

Cities, Towns and Settlements

At the 2001 census, the population of the Murray-Murrumbidgee (Statistical Region Sector), consisting almost entirely of the Riverina, was 255,881, 2.9% of whom are indigenous and 7.4% born outside Australia. Other than the United Kingdom and Ireland, the largest ethnic groups in the Riverina were Italians and Germans.

The Riverina includes three cities; Wagga Wagga, Albury and Griffith. Other large towns include Leeton, Deniliquin, Cootamundra, Narrandera, Junee, and Hay.

Wagga Wagga is the largest inland city in New South Wales and serves as an important employment, educational, cultural, social and entertainment centre for surrounding towns throughout the Riverina. Wagga Wagga's facilities are of metropolitan standards with shopping, cafes, recreational facilities and nightlife present within the city.

Albury offers similar facilities to Wagga Wagga to the far south of New South Wales and northern Victoria. The three largest centres in population in the region after Wagga Wagga and Albury are Griffith, Leeton and Deniliquin and they provide advanced services to the outlying farming regions.

Parts of the Riverina experienced substantial population growth in the late 1990s and early 2000s; in the five-year period between 1996 and 2001, Griffith's population increased by 10.8%. Until recently Wagga Wagga's population was declining slowly and ageing with strong growth in age groups 40 and over. This has now changed and Wagga Wagga has become one of Australia's leading examples of the "sponge" city phenomenon, attracting residents from smaller towns in the Riverina such as Urana. In the year ended 30 June 2006, the population of Wagga Wagga grew by 1.3%, driven by its role as the regional centre for the Riverina and its hosting of a campus of Charles Sturt University and Australian Defence Force bases.