Brief History of Coal Mining in and around Yallourn
About 20 million years ago, the flat, swampy, valley floor was covered with thick vegetation, trees flourished, died and slowly sank into the mud, being covered by leaves bark and roots. Sometimes a river would run through the swamps forming lakes and depositing its load of sediment. Earth movements caused upheaval and hills were formed. The compression of the debris underneath continued in making what was to become brown coal. It is estimated that 38,000 years ago, hunters roamed the area and cooked their fish and game in fires. Evidence of these fires has been found in these vast coal fields, one of the largest single brown coal deposits in the world.
In 1873, a prospector discovered brown coal [lignite] near the junction of the Latrobe and Morwell Rivers. The Greater Morwell Coal Mining Company was registered in October 1888. The open cut mine, on the bank of the Latrobe River, near the future township of the Brown Coal Mine [since early 1940's known as Yallourn North]. In 1890, a railway line from the mine transferred coal to Melbourne. A Royal Commission on Coal in 1891 indicated the economic advantage in transporting briquettes instead of coal which was 66% water.
The manufacture of briquettes failed and the increasing competition from black coal and lack of finances saw the liquidation of the Greater Morwell Coal Mining Company in 1899.
In 1916, The Victorian Mines Department opened and operated the mine until 1924, due to shortages in Victoria caused by a miners' strike in NSW in 1916. In 1920, an Act altered the title of Electrical Commissioners to the State Electricity Commission of Victoria. Sir John Monash, a distinguished soldier [General] and engineer, was appointed its first full time Chairman, until his death in 1931, his bust was displayed as a statue in the gardens at the town centre. The name Yallourn comes from the Aboriginal words "Yalleen" meaning "brown" and "lourn" meaning "fire".