Wangaratta Rural City

Wangaratta Rural City Profile 2004

The Rural City of Wangaratta is located in Victoria, Australia and lies 235 kilometres north east of Melbourne and 647km south of Sydney.

The Rural City of Wangaratta’s website states that it is “widely recognised as a municipality that offers a premier provincial lifestyle. The region is famous for world class wine and gourmet food. It is the gateway to Victoria's major ski fields. With its spectacular scenery, the region is viewed by tourists as the 'hub' from which to explore North East Victoria and Southern New South Wales.”

Larger towns within the Rural City boundaries are Everton, Glenrowan, Oxley, Milawa, Moyhu, Peechelba, Springhurst, Whitfield, Whorouly and Eldorado.

The famous gourmet food and wine areas of Milawa and the King Valley are in Wangaratta Rural City. The Warby Range has good granitic soils, especially suitable for stone fruit production.

Wangaratta is primarily a manufacturing and commercial centre for the north east. Manufacturing strengths are in clothing and textile production, wine processing , and timber processing and value adding. Several large transport and freight companies are located in Wangaratta. A new green tea processing plant ($15.5 million investment) was opened in Wangaratta in November 2004, processing green tea produced solely within the Alpine Shire.

The employment by industry in 2001 (ABS Census) shows the relative importance of the manufacturing industry:

Despite the lower importance of agriculture to the Rural City’s economy, agricultural production in the Wangaratta area has a considerable impact on the AlpValleys regional production.

Using 2001 AG census data, Wangaratta was dominant in the following sectors of agricultural production in the AlpValleys region:

• Apiculture (honey) 58% of total AlpValleys production
• Beef 30%
• Blueberries 69%
• Capsicums 50%
• Cherries 92%
• Citrus 100%
• Deer 50%
• Floriculture/nurseries 50%
• Herbs (culinary) 100%
• Kiwi fruit 100%
• Hay 35%
• Oilseeds (canola) 32%
• Poultry and eggs 95%
• Sheep and lambs 36%
• Stone fruit 98%
• Wool 38%

There were 842 farms in the Rural City of Wangaratta in 2001, representing 36% of the farms of the study area. The number of farms was only slightly higher than in 1997.

The gross value of agricultural production in Wangaratta is $ 89.1 million (ABS 2001). This is a significant increase by 34% on the GVP in 1997, which was $58.5 million.

Using the ABS standard multiplier effects for agriculture, hunting and fishing, it is estimated that the total effective contribution of agribusiness to the economic base of Wangaratta Rural City is $228.7 million, with direct employment in the sector of 1,069 persons and a total employment impact of 1,960²

Wangaratta Rural City Key Figures:

Agribusinesses in Wangaratta Rural City include: