Baranduda

Baranduda is a rural area and, since the 1970s, a rural and residential locality formed under the authority of the Albury Wodonga Development Corporation. It is near the junction of Yackandandah Road and the Kiewa Valley Highway, 10 km south-east of Wodonga.

Baranduda pastoral run was taken up in 1845 and it is thought that the name was derived from an Aboriginal expression relating to a swamp or a water rat. A few kilometres south-west there is the beginning of the Baranduda Range, of which the summit is Mount Baranduda.

Baranduda was a rural hamlet with numerous German farm selectors, who came from South Australia. Beginning with the grazing of cattle, dairying and sawmilling were added, serving markets in Wodonga and providing timber sleepers for railway construction. A school was opened in 1880 and an inter-denominational church in 1912. A memorial hall was built in 1955.

The Albury Wodonga Development Corporation (1974) proposed the Baranduda satellite township, with a projected population of 30,000 within 15 years. A change of government led to a downward revision of the population, and the revised figure has not been achieved.

Baranduda has a community centre (1991), a general store and a school (259 pupils, 2014). Baranduda homestead (1880s) was replaced in 1935 by a building on higher ground. It has bed and breakfast facilities. The Vitasoy factory at Baranduda was expanded in 2011 in response to increased demand for soy milk.

Baranduda’s census populations have been: