Yallourn - Year by Year - 1933 - Robert Dixon above
The first sod in the Victorian Government’s ambitious scheme, to generate electricity at Yallourn, was turned more than a century ago (sometime around 1920); and for the next six decades the township of Yallourn ‘took root, bloomed, withered and died’….
“Yallourn was swallowed by the coal mine it was built to serve”… ‘The Herald Sun’ May 2016.
In this history series for the Virtual Yallourn website, various events in the life of the town and its industries have been chronicled. The monthly activities, shown in each year, are not necessarily the most momentous occasions but simply attempt to show the many varied and interesting happenings that made the local (and sometimes national) news in that era.
The walk down ‘Memory Lane’ (not to be confused with Meadow Lane which ran off Latrobe Avenue) begins in the year of 1925 when the plans for the Yallourn Project were well underway and the ‘garden town’ of Yallourn was creating interest far and wide. This article relates to 1933.
1933
JANUARY: The Victorian Education Department informed the Yallourn Elementary School Committee of the new fee structure for 1933. The extract (below) shows that certain pupils (Forms C and D) would be required to pay £9 (pounds) per year while other students’ instruction would be free of charge. The article also outlined exceptions and variations of such charges according to the situation faced by local families. Note: According to the RBA inflation calculator, £9 in 1933 is equivalent to approx. $960.oo in today’s currency.
The annual meeting of the Yallourn Branch of the League of Nations Union was also held in January 1933. Mr R.D. Dixon was elected to the position of President while Dr H.V. Francis and Mr Morris were nominated Vice-presidents. Mr W. Jamieson was the Honourary Secretary.
The name Robert Derwent Dixon may not have great meaning to younger generations but, in the story of Yallourn, he was a tower of strength and a person of the highest ideals and selfless endeavour.
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