Power lines stretch across West Gippsland taking electricity from the power stations

Moe-Yallourn
Major industrial centre famous for its huge coal reserves.
Located 131 km south-east of Melbourne via the Princes Highway and 70 metres above sea level, Moe-Yallourn is a linked pair of towns which are known as a major industrial centre in Gippsland. In spite of there vital role as part of the economic development of the Latrobe Valley the towns are characterised by attractive public parks and gardens.

The Latrobe River was originally named Glengarry by Angus McMillan but renamed after the first lieutenant governor of Victoria. The two earliest runs in the region, Haslewood and Maryville, date from the mid-1840s. A man named Walsh led a party of Aboriginal police into the region in 1845 or 1846 and a pastoral holding, named 'Merton Bush', was later taken out in the vicinity by Henry Scott.

The area was settled in the 1850s and the township of Moe was originally located 3 km to the north of its present site. It was moved to its current site when the railway arrived in the late 1870s. In the 1850s it became a base for rural selectors moving south into the hill country and for miners headed for the Walhalla goldfields to the north. A small gold discovery was made in the immediate area in 1852.

The area was originally known as 'The Moe' or the 'Mowie' swamp. Indeed the town's name derives from an Aboriginal word which supposedly relates to the marshy nature of the territory. The swampland to the west of the town initially meant that the beef cattle raised in the district had to be shipped to Melbourne via Port Albert.

The local Narracan shire was proclaimed in 1878 and the Moe town site surveyed the following year due to the arrival of the railway from Morwell in 1877 and from Melbourne in 1879. The enhanced access to Melbourne and overseas markets stimulated the development of agriculture and dairying, as did the construction of the highway from Melbourne after World War I.

The modern history of the area was shaped by the determination, after the First World War, of the State Electricity Commission (SEC) to utilise the large brown coal deposits in the area. A mine had operated at Yallourn North between 1887 and 1899 and was reopened in 1916. The SEC began building a power station in 1922 to economise on transportation costs. When it opened in 1924 it became the primary source of energy in the state. Poet John Shaw Neilson was one of the navvies who laboured in the area at this time. The model town of Yallourn was simultaneously developed in order to house the required workers. From 1925 the coal was also briquetted for domestic and industrial use.

The arrival of bucket dredges and electric locomotives in the late twenties and early thirties saw the acceleration of production at the mine site. Several thousand more homes were built between 1947 and 1952 to attract employees. Gas was also produced from the coal between 1956 and 1969 when it was superseded by the development of offshore resources. As a result of these developments the area experienced a rapid growth. Moe was declared a borough in 1955 and a city in 1963.

The power station was periodically extended until the early sixties when a power complex was built at Morwell. Another was constructed at Hazelwood in 1971. In order to obtain the coal deposits beneath Yallourn the SEC announced, in 1969, that it was phasing out the town, with demolition commencing in the 1970s and being completed in 1982. The population of Yallourn was relocated to Moe, Traralgon and Morwell.

A new 1450 megawatt plant was opened at Yallourn West in the 1970s. Tens of thousands of tonnes of coal are crushed and then burned in a chamber each day to produce steam. The steam is used to drive a generator and the energy produced is converted to electrical power for transmission. The steam is then condensed back into water within three huge 100-metre cooling towers - the first to be used in Australia.

At the Yallourn open-cut mine today, bucket wheel dredges, twelve storeys high, dredge around 30 000 tonnes of coal a day.

Things to see:  

Gippsland Heritage Park
Moe's principal tourist attraction is Gippsland Heritage Park, a pioneer township consisting of thirty old buildings relocated from the Gippsland region and set on 8 acres of land at the western end of town. Bushy Park homestead, originally situated on the Avon River at Briagolong, was built by Gippsland explorer, Angus McMillan, in 1850, out of pit-sawn redgum timber, after the original homestead had been destroyed in a bush fire. 'Loren', dating back to 1853 or 1854, is one of the few remaining examples of the prefabricated iron houses which were once imported from Great Britain. It was initially located in Curzon St, North Melbourne. The Cobb and Co. Coach Inn, known as Rhodens Halfway House, is a slab building with lath and plaster outer walls that was built in 1850. It was originally located east of Packenham on the Melbourne to Sale run. The miner's hut was erected on the Tanjil goldfields c.1860 and is a good example of the bark huts which once dotted the Gippsland goldfields. Once the office of the Registrar of Births and Deaths, the Neerim post office, as it became in 1920, sold sweets, stationery and school supplies. Sunny Creek School, built in 1889 on Sunny Creek Road, between Traralgon and Yarragon, is one of the few surviving examples of a weatherboard design once common in Gippsland. Other items of interest are a general store, a church, a doctor's residence, a livery stable, a seamstress's shop from Traralgon and the Kilmany railway station and platform, complete with a K-class locomotive. There is also a collection of horse-drawn vehicles, including the Gippsland Omnibus, which still carries up to twelve people around the town. For more details contact (03) 5127 3082. It is open from 9.00 a.m. - 5.00 p.m. in summer and 10.00 a.m. - 4.00 p.m. June, July and August.

Newborough Lookout
Yallourn open-cut mine operations can be viewed from the Newborough Lookout which can be reached by taking the Yallourn turn-off at the Princes Highway and following the signposts.

Views of the Latrobe Valley
The Latrobe Valley can be surveyed from the top of the Moe South hills at Westbury, from the lookout at Yallourn Heights and from Coalville Road.

Edward Hunter Heritage Bush Reserve
The Edward Hunter Heritage Bush Reserve is 750 hectares of protected bushland which evokes the unsullied environment of pre-European Gippsland.

Other Attractions
Blue Rock Lake possesses picnic, barbecue and boat-launching facilities, a wealth of trout for the keen fisherman and a range of native flora and fauna, including the Sambar deer. To reach it, head north and take the turn-off to the right in the direction of Moondarra, then turn left at the Tanjil South turn-off and continue along the road to the signpost on your right. Alternatively, for a scenic drive, avoid the Tanjil South turn-off and continue north past the Moondarra State Park, through the historic goldmining town, Walhalla, and on to Baw Baw National Park, Mount Erica and the Victorian Alps.

	Motels
	Moe Motor Inn 3 Fowler St Moe-Yallourn VIC 3825 Telephone: (03) 5127 1166 Rating: ***
	The Park Motor Inn 98 Narracan Dve Moe-Yallourn VIC 3825 Telephone: (03) 5127 3344 Rating: ***
	Hotels
	Baw Baw Hotel/Motel 201 Lloyd St Moe-Yallourn VIC 3825 Telephone: (03) 5127 1000 Rating: *
	Leggies Moe Hotel Lloyd St Moe-Yallourn VIC 3825 Telephone: (03) 5127 1009
	Mid City Tavern Moore St Moe-Yallourn VIC 3825 Telephone: (03) 5127 3648
	Moe Hotel Lloyd St Moe-Yallourn VIC 3825 Telephone: (03) 5127 1009
	Rossmore Hotel North Rd 3825 Moe-Yallourn VIC 3825 Telephone: (03) 5167 1401
	Caravan Parks
	Moe Gardens Caravan Park Mitchells Rd Moe-Yallourn VIC 3825 Telephone: (03) 5127 3072 Rating: **
	Restaurants
	Baw Baw Hotel/Motel 201 Lloyd St Moe-Yallourn VIC 3825 Telephone: (03) 5127 1000
	Da Nunzio's Restaurant Moore St Moe-Yallourn VIC 3825 Telephone: (03) 5127 7598
	Great China Inn Lloyd St Moe-Yallourn VIC 3825 Telephone: (03) 5127 4720
	Turfside Tabaret & Bistro Waterloo Rd Moe-Yallourn VIC 3825 Telephone: (03) 5126 1559
	Yong Choon Chinese Restaurant Lloyd St Moe-Yallourn VIC 3825 Telephone: (03) 5127 7594
	Cafés
	Banjo's B.Y.O. Cafe George St Moe-Yallourn VIC 3825 Telephone: (03) 5127 7020
	Chinese Dragon Cafe Fowler St Moe-Yallourn VIC 3825 Telephone: (03) 5127 1310