Stories

FUNDING ANNOUNCED FOR YALLOURN’ S NEW KINDERGARTEN
Unfortunately, the original copy of this newspaper report was in such poor condition that some guess work has been used to ‘fill the gaps’ in certain paragraphs of the story. However, it is a most important news item in the history of the town of Yallourn and should be placed on record for others to read in future years.
The article, published in June 1947, reports on the A.G.M of the Yallourn Community Kindergarten Association; the meeting was held in the Yallourn Library and a large crowd was in attendance.
The issue… more

A TRIBUTE TO SYD TATE 1925-2015
Sad news has come to hand regarding the death of one of Yallourn’s finest footballers Syd Tate. Syd passed away on May 16th this year at the age of 90 years.
Syd, born in England, played with Yallourn Football Club in those years immediately after World War: 2. In 1947 he was signed by Geelong FC and played 85 games with the Cats, mainly as a rover or wingman, and kicked 13 goals. The highlight of Syd’s career was being a member of the Geelong team that won the 1951 VFL premiership.
After retiring from VFL football, Syd coached Wagga… more

UNDERCOVER OPERATION BY POLICE AT YALLOURN
The following article was published in the ‘The Argus’ and reported on the detection work of two Victorian policeman in a covert operation at Yallourn in 1923. Working undercover, the officers pretended to be workers while gathering information about the sly-grog and illegal gaming rackets in the camps at Yallourn.
Some readers may not be aware that it took about seven years for the ‘new’ town of Yallourn to acquire a hotel (1928); and with hundreds of thirsty workers, at the end of long day of ‘hard labour’, it is little wonder that… more

YALLOURN’S FIRST 3D FILM
Everyone who lived in Yallourn was very proud of the town’s ultra-modern cinema and it was big part of the lives of young and old alike The following news article is about the first-ever three dimensional film to be screened at the Yallourn Theatre. The report was published in the ‘Morwell Advertiser’ in September 1953.
The footnotes that accompany this article give brief details about the famous film.
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10th September 1953 Morwell Advertiser Page :3

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Malcolm Gibson YHS 1962 wrote - “the photograph of one of the Yallourn fountains certainly brings back memories. I don't recall specific dates, circumstances etc but I recall two occasions when detergent was used in the fountain, one of these occasions also involved a quantity of potassium permanganate (Condies crystals) which turned the frothy water purple. As to who the perpetrators were is anyone's guess, but I would say that the list of suspects would be fairly large and would probably not hold any surprises to those of us from that era. Good harmless fun eh? Wouldn't happen these days… more

Ted Ebsworth YTS 1942 read the death notice of Charles Beanland in July 2001 and it brought back a lot of memories, as Charles was the Principal of Yallourn Tech School and his son, Graham, was in Ted's class. In 1939, Ted and family moved from the settlement called the South Camp to Newborough (Moe East). Riding our bikes to school was more fun than hard yakka. There were always chases through the bush tracks and animals to chase, especially the wild sheep. One hot summer morning, someone suggested we go for a skinny dip down the Latrobe River, which we often did. I can remember most of… more

THE HISTORY OF YALLOURN SOCCER CLUB
EPISODE 2 1920 - 1930
SOME "NEED TO KNOWS" CONCERNING HISTORICAL SOCCER IN VICTORIA

1. Competition Structure
The competition structure of soccer in Victoria was based on the European experience and this was to be expected as the early administrators of the game were migrants. The basic competition was the "League Championship" a home and away competition, the premier team was the one that finished on top of the league with the most points (and better goal difference if teams finished on the same number of points). There was no… more

The Club was established down on the Latrobe River in 1930. It was located on the road to the Town Water Supply Pump House. The site is still accessible today from the same road which starts opposite Yallourn W Power Station, however it has changed a lot since the early swimming days.
In the early days swimmers had to walk or ride bikes from the town down an old bike track towards the Power Station, turn off before reaching the West Camp and then on past Horrie Devine’s House/ Carrier Business and down the Pump House road. The river was much wider then and the pool area was fenced… more

THE YALLOURN PUBLIC LIBRARY
The Free Library Movement of Victoria was formed in 1937 and within a short space of time, the community of Yallourn had not only fully embraced the idea of ‘free loans’ (except on fictional titles) but had become the pace-setter in public library borrowings throughout the State.
The following article was published in ‘The Argus’ on the 2nd July 1953 and reported on the quantity of books being borrowed at the Yallourn Public Library in that period. The high number of loans, based on per-head of population, probably set some sort of record for library… more

FRONT PAGE NEWS FROM YALLOURN
The following news article, related to a serious incident in Yallourn, hit the headlines on page one of a leading Melbourne newspaper (‘The Argus’) in 1952.
The report told of a terrifying situation when a railway truck broke its shackles and went careering through Yallourn.
This story shared the front page of ‘The Argus’ with such important news items as: State Aid for Church Schools, the Korean War peace talks, an increase in cigarette prices, Sir Otto Niemeyer (Director of the Bank of England) and the leading article of that day which… more