Former town in Victoria, Australia
Yallourn, Victoria
was a
company town
in
Victoria, Australia
built between 1921
[1]
and 1961
[2]
to house employees of the
State Electricity Commission of Victoria
(SECV), who operated the nearby
Yallourn Power Station
complex. However, expansion of the adjacent
open-cut
brown coal
mine led to the closure and removal of the town in the 1980s. Whilst the township no longer exists, at the
2006 census
, the adjacent region classified as Yallourn had a population of 251.
[3]
Design
[
edit
]
The town was planned by A.R. La Gerche, the State Electricity Commission's Architect.
[4]
It is sometimes mistakenly thought to have been designed by
Walter Burley Griffin
, who planned
Canberra
, Australia's capital city.
The design of Yallourn incorporated lessons learnt from the early UK garden cities of
Welwyn Garden City
and
Letchworth Garden City
inspired by
Ebenezer Howard
. The design of Yallourn established a formal central square adjacent to the shopping area and a formal "Broadway" bounded by parks between the shopping area and railway station. The whole town area was surrounded by a green belt varying between native vegetation, open parkland and sporting and recreational complexes.
The majority of the land and buildings, with the churches and several minor properties as the exceptions, were owned by the SECV. Residents were charged below market rentals and the SECV adopted the role of paternalistic landlord in addition to its role as employer to the majority of the town's income earners. The conflicts this created caused continuing concern throughout the life of the town. For the majority of the town's life, citizen involvement was limited, residents being represented in their dealings with the SECV by a Town Advisory Council that was established in 1947.
[5]
Houses within the town were constructed to a limited number of designs but these were varied by differing external detailing and surface finishes. A brick and tile manufacturing plant was built near the town and produced a characteristic terracotta roofing tile which was used to clad most homes. The pitch of the roof structure and overhanging eaves remained similar throughout the town, providing a common theme without the sameness characteristic of English garden city developments. The homes were placed on large plots, typically of 1000 m
2
, the design brief from General Sir John Monash, the initial SECV chairman requiring that each plot should have sufficient land to permit the tenant to keep a horse and a garden.
The town boasted outstanding public facilities many years in advance of similar rural or suburban communities of similar size, the majority funded by the SECV. A close community spirit developed within the town, in part through enthusiastic usage of the excellent facilities.
External communications
[
edit
]
The
Yallourn railway line
was opened to the town in January 1922 as a branch junctioning at Hernes Oak on the
Gippsland railway line
; this line was replaced by a one on an easier gradient extending east from
Moe
in September 1953, which was electrified in 1955.
[6]
The local railway station closed to passengers in the 1960s,
[7]
with the line then being used primarily to haul
briquettes
from the
Yallourn briquette factory
. When the factory closed, the line was used to haul briquettes from the Morwell factory to Yallourn, as briquettes were used as the initial fuel when lighting the furnaces in the power station until enough steam was generated to dry the brown coal used as the main fuel. Closure of the line occurred in 1986 when the transport of briquettes shifted to trucks.
[8]
Yallourn Post Office opened on 8 October 1923 (being renamed from Western Camp which opened the previous year) and closed in 1980 when the town was removed. An earlier Yallourn Post Office opened in 1921 and was renamed Eastern Camp in 1923. Another Western Camp Post Office opened in 1924 and closed in 1968.
[9]
Closure
[
edit
]
At its peak the town's population reached 5000. However, in 1968 the SECV decided to demolish the town to make way for further mining. Despite an attempted
green ban
to save the town,
[10]
by 1983 demolition was complete,
[5]
the underlying brown coal reserves being used to feed the
Yallourn W Power Station
. Many of the people who were relocated from Yallourn built homes in
Moe
,
Morwell
,
Newborough
,
Traralgon
,
Yallourn North
and other surrounding towns in the
Latrobe Valley
.
Many of the houses from the town were removed, either to these nearby towns, or on occasion moved further afield. The timber-framed buildings were reclad, although most retained their characteristic Yallourn tiled roof. The SECV developed some properties, particularly in small developments in nearby Newborough where Yallourn houses were removed and samples of the conversions that were possible were showcased. These transplanted Yallourn homes remain popular with former Yallourn residents.
Sport
[
edit
]
Golfers play at the course of the Yallourn Golf Club on Golf Links Road in neighbouring Yallourn Heights.
[11]
Yallourn is widely credited as being among the catalyst for the success of soccer in the Latrobe Valley,
[12]
fielding many organised teams in the
Latrobe Valley Soccer League
, including the
Yallourn Soccer Club
- which in the 1950s had as many as 15 teams, including 12 schoolboy teams
[13]
- and smaller clubs, such as
Red Triangle Yallourn
(composed of workers from the town's East and West Camps) and the Yallourn YMCA.
[14]
[15]
In 1947
Yallourn Soccer Club
was granted entry into the Men's State League. After winning promotion in 1950 to the highest division in the
Victorian State League
, Yallourn was crowned Victorian Champions in 1951. Yallourn won the league title by four points, losing only once all season.
[16]
The Club's local
LVSL
team also won league championships in 1964 and 1996 and four Battle of Britain Cups (1954, 1964, 1965 and 1966).
With the closure of the township in the 1970s, Yallourn SC amalgamated with nearby Newborough United and today still exists as the
Newborough-Yallourn United
, which celebrated its 100 year anniversary in 2023. For the centenary season, the club adopted a commemorative 'Yallourn' emblem and wore the original Yallourn SC's red jersey with a distinctive 'Y' emblazoned on the front of the kit, as per the original club.
[17]
In June 1952, during the
1952 VFL season
, a senior
Australian Football League
(formerly the VFL) game between Footscray and St Kilda was played at Yallourn Oval, with St Kilda being victorious. The match was organised as part of an effort by the
Australian National Football Council
(ANFC) to promote the sport, and the other matches in the round were played in
Albury
,
Brisbane
,
Euroa
,
Hobart
, and
Sydney
(all non-standard venues). The match in Yallourn was affected by rain, but still drew a crowd estimated at 3,500 people.
[18]
[19]
Notable residents
[
edit
]
- Gaele Sobott
, Author, who was born in Yallourn.
[20]
- Marjorie Thorpe: Aboriginal activist who was also born and raised in Yallourn.
[21]
- Pat Kennelly
Victorian Labour Party Senator for Victoria from 1953 to 1971.
38°11′S
146°20′E
/
38.183°S 146.333°E
/
-38.183; 146.333
Documentaries
[
edit
]
In 1974 the SECV made a living history documentary about Yallourn,
Born to Die
.
[22]
[23]
In June 2008, the
ABC Radio
program
Hindsight
presented a two-hour radio documentary about the history of Yallourn,
The Model Town and the Machine: A History of Yallourn
.
[24]
In Music
[
edit
]
The
Weddings, Parties, Anything
song
Industrial town
is about Yallourn. The band's frontman
Mick Thomas
was born in Yallourn and lived there as a child, where his father worked for the SEC.
[25]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Meredith Fletcher
Digging People Up For Coal: A History of Yallourn
Melbourne University Press, South Carlton 2002 p. 19
- ^
Meredith Fletcher
Digging People Up For Coal: A History of Yallourn
Melbourne University Press, South Carlton 2002 p. 163
- ^
Australian Bureau of Statistics
(25 October 2007).
"Yallourn (State Suburb)"
.
2006 Census QuickStats
. Retrieved
31 October
2010
.
- ^
'Notes of General Interest',
Journal of the Royal Victorian Institute of Architects
, March, 1939 p.8
- ^
a
b
"State Electricity Commission of Victoria"
. Public Record Office Victoria. Archived from
the original
on 6 October 2009
. Retrieved
7 March
2010
.
- ^
S.E. Dornan and R.G. Henderson (1979).
Electric Railways of Victoria
. Australian Electric Traction Society. p. 88.
ISBN
0-909459-06-1
.
- ^
"Yallourn Railway Station"
.
Monash University ARROW Repository
. arrowprod.lib.monash.edu.au
. Retrieved
19 June
2008
.
- ^
"VR History"
. victorianrailways.net
. Retrieved
18 June
2008
.
- ^
Phoenix Auctions History.
"Post Office List"
. Retrieved
13 March
2021
.
- ^
Burgmann, Verity and Meredith (1998).
Green Bans, Red Union: Environmental Activism and the New South Wales Builders Labourers' Federation
. p. 50.
- ^
Golf Select.
"Yallourn"
. Retrieved
11 May
2009
.
- ^
Lobley, Murray (31 May 2013).
"History of the Yallourn SC, Episode 1"
.
Virtually Yallourn
. Retrieved
12 September
2023
.
- ^
"Yallourn Run Fifteen Teams"
.
The Argus
. 19 July 1950
. Retrieved
22 September
2023
.
- ^
"Soccer"
.
Live Wire
. 19 May 1954
. Retrieved
22 September
2023
.
- ^
"Soccer Notes"
.
Morwell Advertiser
. 30 March 1950
. Retrieved
22 September
2023
.
- ^
"Victorian Division One Table - 1951"
.
- ^
"NYUSC Official Page"
.
Facebook
.
- ^
Frank Walsh (18 June 1952). "Yallourn says "come again"
".
Sporting Globe
. Melbourne. p. 12.
- ^
Yallourn - All Games
, AFL Tables. Retrieved 15 December 2016.
- ^
"Gaele Sobott"
.
austlit.edu.au
.
University of Queensland
. Retrieved
19 January
2018
.
- ^
"Australian Women's Register"
.
- ^
Peter Read Returning to Nothing: The Meaning of Lost Places 1996 ? p. 98 "The film Born to Die commissioned by the SEC gave inhabitants ? unlike the Adaminaby residents ? opportunities to speak about their feelings. 'It's not born to die it's born to live and it's living now; Isn't this a town worth keeping; How much is ..."
- ^
Australian Folklore -1995 p. 167 "These records include several official Inquiries, the draft of the play 'The Yallourn Show', the exhibition 'Yallourn Revisited', the film 'Born to Die', the complete series of the Yallourn newspaper (under several titles) and many transcribed ..."
- ^
ABC Hindsight: "The Model Town and the Machine: A History of Yallourn"
Part 1 of 2
;
Part 2 of 2
- ^
Time Out Melbourne
"Mick Thomas: Interview" 6 June 2013
Retrieved 1 March 2015.
- Edwards, Cecil (1969).
Brown Power. A jubilee history of the SECV
.
State Electricity Commission of Victoria
.
- Gill, Herman (1949).
Three Decades: The story of the State Electricity Commission of Victoria from its inception to December 1948
. Hutchinson & Co.
External links
[
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]