Stories

Kernot Hall was a prominent landmark in the Yallourn Town Square from April 1959, built on the site which was previously used by the Casualty Clearing Station and a temporary Library. It was hired both by local community organisations and other Latrobe Valley bodies for functions such as cabaret balls, concerts, conventions, wedding receptions, exhibitions, public meetings, union meetings and Yallourn Old Girls' Association reunions. It had also been hired for television shows and wrestling matches. Some Yallourn High School assemblies were also held here. It was one of the last buildings… more

The Yallourn Library began in 1946 in the former Casualty Clearing Station which was in a hut near the Health Centre. Volunteer staff were on hand from 3pm to 6pm and 7pm to 10pm to handle the meagre stock, largely provided by public donations of books and money. A new library was opened on 16 November 1956 on the opposite side of the town square, on the site between the National Bank and the picture theatre, previously occupied by temporary shops and a bus shelter. The library housed a general library area and other features, including an activity room housing a projector recess, kitchen… more

YALLOURN FOOTBALL CLUB 1945-66

50 YEARS AGO~ 1963 GRANT COWLEY

Grant Cowley won the coveted 1963 Best and Fairest Trophy for Yallourn Football Club. Grant was born in New Zealand in 1941. He grew up in Penrose, a suburb of Auckland, on the North Island. As a boy, Grant loved the outdoors and was always happy playing rugby and cricket. (Grant was the captain of his junior Rugby team - Te Papapa).

In 1950, his family migrated to Australia and settled in Quarry Road Yallourn. The ‘Quarry Road Gang’ took an instant shine to the ‘new kid on the block.’ Grant could bowl (… more

LIVE WIRE - 2 February, 1949:
The Yallourn Kindergarten will re-open on Tuesday, February 8 but to allow individual attention for each incoming child, the dates of commencement have been staggered. The following are the 55 oldest pre-school children who will attend kindergarten on each morning from 9am - 12 noon during 1949. The dates on which they are to attend are:-

Tuesday, 8 Feb:
Meryl Baker
Heather Smith
Dawn Smith
Lance White
Ian Hill
Margaret Williams
Colin Webster
Bronwyn Curtis
Coral James
Bruce Lewis
… more

Margaret Jones wrote: I lived at 6 Broadway West in a cream stucco house, trimmed with dark green, along with my parents Claude & Leila and sisters Beverley and Patricia Jones. We went to Yallourn in 1938 where dad took up a position at Yallourn Technical School teaching Mechanical Drawing, Maths & Science.

Our lives were worry-free, sunny happy days, being able to do and go where we wanted, without a care in the world. My friends were Norma Davey, Peggy Thorpe, Glenda Dunstan & Ruth Ray. We would go bike riding for the day to Morwell Bridge - such happy days!

I… more

HISTORIC PRINTS AVAILABLE: prints from the original pen drawings of 12 Yallourn buildings made on site in 1980 by Yallourn resident Graham Longmore.

The prints are available in two sets of six at $80 per set plus P&P if applicable.
Set One : Post Office, Shopping Centre, High School, Presbyterian Church, Methodist Hall, 5 Maiden St
Set Two : Picture Theatre, National Bank, Health Centre, Catholic Church, Church of England, 58 Narracan Ave

Paper size is 58 x 41 cm and the image size is up to 42 x 28 cm. The ink used is sepia and the paper is a pale buff colour… more

Article from "Link" Issue 51, Nov 2011 - information from Morwell Historical Society:
"Flax and Fire proved a Fatal Mix
In 1941, a flax mill was built in Morwell to supply raw material for webbing belts used by the military. Flax supplied by local farms and those from further afield was transported by road or rail to be processed at the factory in Latrobe Road. Flax is oily and needs to be dried so stacks of raw flax were piled high around the mill before being laid out in paddocks to dry.
On 14 February 1944, a series of grass fires started in the afternoon and swept… more

YALLOURN FOOTBALL CLUB 1945-65

YALLOURN V MOE 1956.

You don’t always have to be a brown coal miner to dredge up a bit of history. Sometimes buried treasure can be discovered in an old newspaper.
In this case, ‘The Argus’ (July 2nd 1956) was a ‘real find’.

‘The Argus’, a popular metropolitan daily of those times, devoted more than two columns (on page: 7) to the LVFL fixture Moe versus Yallourn. The report was filed by a city based scribe named Ron Testro. It appears that Ron had travelled to Moe to witness the clash between the neighbouring clubs. Ron’s review… more

YALLOURN FOOTBALL CLUB 1945-65
VIC LAWRENCE

Perhaps it was no accident that three prominent North Melbourne footballers played with Yallourn in the 1950’s. It may have been good luck; but it could have been the result of astute recruiting that ruckman Laurie Shipp (1954-56), centre man Gerald Marchesi (1955-56) and defender Vic Lawrence (1958-59) were lured to the club. All had been team mates at North Melbourne FC at some time.

Vic Lawrence was recruited to NMFC from the local side North Colts in 1948. Vic proceeded slowly but steadily in building a reputation as… more

Designed by La Gerche and with a similar style to the Hotel, the Hospital opened on 13 January, 1929 by Sir John Monash. About 2,000 people attended the official opening costing with equipment over 32.000 pounds ($50,000).

It had 24 beds and heating and all other services were operated electrically which meant the hip roof was unbroken by chimneys. When it opened, its staff consisted of two sisters and three nurses. From the day it opened, the hospital was busy and on some occasions even taxed to capacity, especially when an epidemic occurred. Scarlet fever broke out in 1929 and… more