Yallourn, Victoria

Yallourn, Victoria was a company town in Victoria, Australia built between the 1920s and 1950s to house employees of the State Electricity Commission of Victoria, who operated the nearby Yallourn Power Station complex. However, expansion of the adjacent open-cut brown coal mine led to the closure and removal of the town in the 1980s. Whilst the township no longer exists, at the 2006 census, the adjacent region classified as Yallourn had a population of 251.

The Yallourn Works Area is an unincorporated enclave surrounded by the local government area the City of Latrobe, specifically the Tanjil Ward.

Often mistakenly thought to have been designed by Walter Burley Griffin, who planned Canberra, Australia's capital city, the town was planned by A.R. La Gerche, the State Electricity Commission's Architect.

The design of Yallourn incorporated lessons learnt from the early UK garden cities of Welwyn Garden City and Letchworth Garden City inspired by Ebenezer Howard. The design of Yallourn established a formal central square adjacent to the shopping area and a formal "Broadway" bounded by parks between the shopping area and railway station. The whole town area was surrounded by a green belt varying between native vegetation, open parkland and sporting and recreational complexes.

The majority of the land and buildings, with the exception of the churches and several minor properties, were owned by the S.E.C.V. Residents were charged below market rentals and the S.E.C.V. adopted the role of paternalistic landlord in addition to its role as employer to the majority of the town's income earners. The conflicts this created caused continuing concern throughout the life of the town. For the majority of the town's life, citizen involvement was limited, residents being represented in their dealings with the S.E.C.V. by a Town Advisory Council that was established in 1947.

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