YALLOURN HOSPITAL
Designed by La Gerche and with a similar style to the Hotel, the Hospital opened on January 13, 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 reached such proportions in early 1930 that two new cottages on the outskirts of the town were converted for use as a temporary infectious diseases hospital and nurses quarters. The 1944 bush fires came within feet of the hospital and patients were evacuated. News that the hospital may have to be moved was first discussed in 1954. It was considered that by 1960, the Yallourn Open Cut overburden removal operations would have reached such close proximity to the hospital as to make it untenable, even though the lease did not expire until 1961. However in 1956, a review of overburden and coal winning operations was made and it was decided because of several reasons that operations would continue more in the direction of Morwell Bridge. The hospital was renamed in 1950 to (L.V.C.H.) Latrobe Valley Community Hospital and in 1959 it was incorporated. It closed in 1971 when a new hospital opened the same year in Moe.
1928/1931 facts: Yallourn dwellings totalled 498, the Hotel opened on 1 October, and the Hospital opened on 13 January 1929, Yallourn’s population 2376
1939/1940 facts: Yallourn dwellings 741 by 1940, population 3006, Building of Yallourn Theatre and Office Place Guest House completed
