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 m2, 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
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
Yallourn W Power Station led to the town's removal
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
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]
Yallourn SC members with the 1951 Victoria State Championship pennant
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]
Marjorie Thorpe, Aboriginal activist, daughter of Alma Thorpe and mother of politician Lidia Thorpe, coordinator of SNAICC as well as director of the Victorian Aboriginal Child Care Agency[21]
Pat Kennelly Victorian Labour Party Senator for Victoria from 1953 to 1971[22]
In 1974 the SECV made a living history documentary about Yallourn, Born to Die.[23][24] 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.[25]
In Music
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.[26]
References
^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
^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
