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We were lucky to have a bigger house than many but it was cold in winter and the dust always a problem - but our mother coped well with the dust and the very basic facilities - but it didn't worry us children much. We loved the bush nearby to explore - great sports grounds, especially loved that old swimming pool (in the swamp) with its diving tower in the middle. The dirty water never worried us. Also swam in the river, rode bikes everywhere. I always thought the theatre design was rather special but didn't realise how special till I studied Architecture later.

Wonderful memories. Central location. Opposite Yallourn High School, close to shops, churches, schools, sport facilities. Very happy community in 1940s and 1950s.

Immediate Neighbours: No 8 - Pitt, Angus, Gregson, Lavery, Esler; No 12 - Roberts, Price, Cass, Coulson, Blampied Nearby Neighbours: Behind back fence (Church St) - White; No 6 - Shepherd, James; No 4 - Buller; No 2 - Rev Brown; No 12 - Slade

Don McCredden, nephew of Vic & Floris lived with the Gusts from 1944 - 1946. Wonderful years! He remembers the neighbours being then:

Easy walk to school, swimming pool,, shops etc. My grandmother Chance came to live with us there. The block of four toilets at the bottom of the yard. A huge plum tree which was the cause of many stomach aches. My first tooth was extracted by Mr Rosenberg. Sister was born here. Immediate Neighbours: Bowler, Gust Nearby Neighbours: Ostlund, Kennedy, White, Hines, Walton, Cox

This house was the last house on that side right next to the bush. Use to go with father to collect wood in wheel barrow. We sometimes had owls that came to sit on the clothes line and other animals - kangaroos, lizards, wombats etc. Nearby Neighbours: Leiper, Rainbow

Kindergarten - Church St 1953-54; YPS 1955-60; YFC - mascot/selling newspapers at hotel; Salvation Army - Church/swimming pool/Sat arvo matinee at picture theatre/going to the old tip looking for junk! Left High School mid-1964 to join Australian Army as an apprentice. Always have returned to Yallourn area on holidays etc. Have a bit of memorabilia of Yallourn and many fond memories. Immediate Neighbours: 29 - Dick Sullivan (son Richard) Nearby Neighbours: 27 - Courtney; 37 - Dinsdale; rear on Coach Rd - Harvey

Lots of coal dust from briquette factory. Large back yard with fruit trees, passionfruit on side fence. Played junior football, cricket & tennis, was in Scouts and Senior Scouts. My father (Alan) was a teacher at Yallourn Technical School. Immediate Neighbours: Mr & Mrs Beulke Nearby Neighbours: Bradbury; Sagar

Great neighbours and community close to everywhere - good sporting facilities. Dad had a super vege garden out the back. Mum and I gardened the front - lovely Golden Ash street trees. We 3 girls slept in big bedroom at first. Mum and Dad in other front bedroom. Brother John in small room at the back. Yallourn was a lovely safe community to grow up in. Great amenities, clubs & sports facilities. Great high school under Mr Ellis - good teachers. Immediate Neighbours: 10 - George Gray; 6 - Kruchneiders (before them were Kromoloffs)

Catholic school opposite - sports facilities - ovals, pool, theatre, library, café, school, paper round, TV was a novelty. Neighbours: 2 - A&L Robertson (teachers), then B R Harrison; 4 - Allen (Bill, Marie, Janet).

Dad and Father Walsh having a beer or two on Sunday arvos. Immediate Neighbours: Scott; Wilson Nearby Neighbours: Only Wilsons between us and shops. Catholic Church across road

Many happy times especially at night with a sing-song round the piano when all our friends would drop in and our special friend, Sinon Hannon, would play his saxophone and violin. Our other special friend, Claude Peck, played piano at Yallourn. We always felt safe and well cared for - a very good place to grow up in. Immediate Neighbours: McCulloch; Ramage; Thorpe Nearby Neighbours: Maxfield; Whitehouse; Crow; Spittle; Gregory Spencer; Reid

I adored my time in Yallourn and would love to have had the opportunity to bring my children up in the same environment. Great family times, big Christmases with all the Wiggins family (my mum's maiden name). Fantastic birthday parties where all the neighbours kids were invited. Hot evenings we would sit on a blanket in the front yard. Dad would open the lounge window and put the TV up to it and whoever walked past would stop and join in. Being invited to Mr & Mrs Benson's for Sunday lunch for her roast lamb and rhubarb pie - what a treat that was.

As kids, we used to play running up the sides of the drains and from that I came down with Scarlet Fever. Yallourn Hospital was opened in 1928 but did not cater for fever patients so I had to go to Sale. There were floods at the time and the ambulance was the last let through. I shifted to Newborough when I was 4 but was at Yallourn for all my school days. My father Charlie Wells came out from England in 1920, joined the SEC in 1921. He started as a dredge driver and later a foreman in the Open Cut spending all his working life with the SEC.

As we were across the road from the railway line, it was easy to view the Queen when she passed through the town. Immediate Neighbours: Betts, Watkinson Nearby Neighbours: Wiggins, Trethowan, Williamson

Great family times, big Christmases with all the Wiggins family (mum's maiden name) all playing cricket on the greenbelt area opposite our house. We moved to this house when my grandparents relocated to Newborough, the reason for the move being my brother, Ronald, was dying of cancer and where we lived in Southway, he and my brother Peter shared a bungalow, which was quite cold. The Railway Ave house was big enough to house us all under one roof. Ronald died not long after we moved into Railway Ave, so there are happy and sad memories of this house.

Born at Yallourn Hospital in Sept 1953. Immediate Neighbours: Flack

Plenty of coal dust - but a happy place to live. No 1 oval at briquetting factory. School excursions (by train) to railway station - as did the circus - which paraded by our home to the oval. 6 o'clock closing when the happy drunks used to stagger up the road to their camp and sometimes found them in our front yard in the morning. The big explosion in the factory when Mr Stack was killed. Learning to swim in latrobe River prior to the big flood, which washed away the swing bridge access to Brown Coal Mine, now Yallourn North. Outside toilet...Marj

Yallourn was a great place to grow up as a young kid. Although we didn't realise it at the time, it had everything to offer with the many amenities, social groups and sporting facilities. Many country towns today would be envious of what we had available way back then.. Cubs, scouts, St John ambulance, piano lessons, tennis club, soccer. Delivering the afternoon papers. Fishing in the Latrobe River. My first girl friend. Our chimney catching fire, picking up briquettes from the nearby railway line. Dad driving the ambulance (part time).

Too young to remember. Moved to 76 Fairfield Avenue

Immediate Neighbours: 13 - Mary Riddle; Pat & Rene Reuters; Col & Sue Griss