Residents used the meeting to question Wagga City Council’s city strategy manager Tristan Kell over what they see as serious infrastructure problems that have been exposed by the influx of new people.

A Department of Education representative told the meeting that Estella’s new primary school should open in January 2021 with a capacity for 370 pupils.

Mr Kell admitted that the council had not done the best job in managing the “growing pains” and it would have to confront some long-term issues as Estella grew.

“We probably could have been a bit better at managing that growth,” he said.

Mr Kell said Wagga council would have to confront long-standing issues such as poor east-west connectivity as the new school was developed. 

Wagga’s state byelection candidates were also given a chance to introduce themselves and speak about issues affecting the city’s northern areas.

One issue that drew wide support from candidates was the call to to duplicate the Gobbagombalin Bridge, which links Estella to Wagga and the Olympic Highway.

Mr Kell told the residents that he wanted to acknowledge the Estella Progress Association as a lot of the developments in the area were a result of residents’ hard work.

“You as a community are doing a such a fabulous job keeping council, particularly council officers, on our toes,” he said.

“Your neighbourhood is probably one of the most exciting in regional NSW, it’s growing at a rapid rate at 5.3 per cent.

“It means you are the second fastest growing neighbourhood behind the Tweed, which in my opinion is just an extension of the Gold Coast.”

Residents told the meeting that there would be a fatal accident on the ‘Gobba’ Bridge if it was not duplicated.

Mr Kell said it was a state road but the council would work with Wagga’s new MP on the issue after the September byelection.

Liberal candidate for Wagga Julia Ham said she looked forward to being the local MP for the “exciting” Estella area.

“Coming here tonight just blows me away because I can remember when there was nothing here at all,” she said.

Independent candidate Paul Funnell said he supported duplicating the bridge because an accident had delayed him for 47 minutes.

Labor candidate Dan Hayes said he agreed with Mr Funnell’s statements that the government had given Wagga projects to shut people up but not meet their needs.