Latrobe Valley
The Baw Baw Shire Council & Latrobe City Council Local Government Areas.
| Regions of Gippsland |
|---|
| East West South Central Latrobe Valley |
The Latrobe Valley is an inland geographical region and urban area of Gippsland in the state of Victoria, Australia. It is east of the City Of Melbourne and nestled between the Strzelecki Ranges to the south and the Great Dividing Range to the north – with the highest peak to the north of the Latrobe Valley – approximately due north of Moe – being Mount Baw Baw.
The area has four major centres (from west to east) Warragul, Moe, Morwell and Traralgon with a total population of of over 80,000. The city of Moe is the most central city to the Latrobe Valley – with all other major centres in the area (from Drouin to Traralgon) being within an approximate 35 kilometer radius of Moe.
It is named after the Latrobe River which flows eastward, through the valley.
Contents |
[edit] Geography
While the Latrobe River flows into Lake Wellington to the east of Sale and includes in its drainage basin a significant part of central Gippsland, the region conventionally known as the Latrobe Valley occupies a smaller area centred on the three major towns of Moe, Morwell and Traralgon, between the Strzelecki Ranges to the south and the westernmost reaches of the Australian Alps to the north. The valley is moderately fertile with a damp climate.
[edit] Climate
It has a maritime climate meaning mild temperatures with large amounts of rain, the occasional frost and snow on neighbouring hills. The Latrobe Valley’s warmest month is February with an average temperature range of 12.5 °C to 26.4 °C and the coldest month is July with an average temperature range of 3.6 °C to 13.5 °C. The most rain occurs in late winter and spring, and average yearly rainfall is approximately 800mm.
[edit] Demographics
There are four major population centres in the latrobe valley:
- Moe – Latrobe City Council – central Latrobe Valley
- Morwell – Latrobe City Council – East Latrobe Valley
- Traralgon – Latrobe City Council – East Latrobe Valley
- Warragul – Baw Baw Shire Council – West Latrobe Valley
The primary hospital is the Latrobe Regional Hospital located on the Princes Highway between Morwell and Traralgon.
Smaller towns are Tyers Newborough, Yinnar, Erica, Thorpdale, Yallourn North(The original Yallourn being relocated due to the open cut coal mine), Churchill (site of the local campus of Monash University) and Boolarra.
All the major towns are served by Rotary clubs, Rotary club of Morwell, Rotary club of Moe, Hazelwood Rotary Club (Churchill), and Traralgon and Traralgon central Rotary clubs.
[edit] Economy
Key industry sectors include power generation, paper manufacture, timber mills, agriculture, dairy, timber, IT, engineering and education. The Valley provides 85% of Victoria’s electricity and has a substantial engineering sector supporting the power generation, pulp and paper production and food processing industries, etc. The tertiary education sector attracts local, interstate and international students.
Logging is also an important industry in the hills to the north and south, with a major paper mill located at Maryvale, near Morwell. In the rugged north of the region is located the historic gold-mining town of Walhalla, amid mountains forming the west of Alpine National Park and nearby Baw Baw National Park, a minor winter ski resort.
[edit] Industry
It is significant as the centre of Victoria's Energy industry – specifically the mining and burning of Lignite (brown coal) to produce electricity. The area produces a total of approximately 85% of the electricity for the entire state of Victoria – and supplies some electricity to New South Wales & Tasmania – and is home to four of the highest electricity producing power stations in the country.
Power plants located in the Latrobe Valley include Hazelwood Power Station, Loy Yang Power Stations A & B, Yallourn Power Station, Jeeralang Power Station (Gas) and the Energy Brix Power Station.
[edit] Governance
The Latrobe Valley consists of two Local Government Areas, The City of Latrobe (central/eastern Latrobe Valley) which has the bulk of the region's population and also the Shire of Baw Baw (west Latrobe Valley).
Latrobe City LGA has a population of approximately 75,000 with four major population centres: Moe, Morwell, Churchill and Traralgon, with smaller townships including Boolarra, Glengarry, Toongabbie, Tyers, Traralgon South, Yallourn North, and Yinnar with the administrative headquarters located in Morwell.
Baw Baw Shire has a population of over 40,000 and is headquartered in Warragul.
[edit] Transport
The Princes Freeway runs through Latrobe Valley, bypassing only Morwell and connecting the region to both Melbourne and East Gippsland. The centrally located center of Moe is approximately 1 hour and 30 minutes drive from the central business district of Melbourne.
V/Line runs a rail service from metropolitan Melbourne to the Latrobe Valley and also runs services that go through the Latrobe Valley to East Gippsland. Some rail services run limited express to the Latrobe Valley – stopping in the major population centres of Drouin, Warragul, Moe, Morwell & Traralgon. Other Services – including the Gippslander rail service – stop all stations in the area. Services to the Latrobe Valley run between Melbourne to Traralgon – whilst Gippsland services run between Melbourne to Bairnsdale. The Latrobe Valley/Gippsland rail ine is connected to the meteropolitan Melbourne Pakenham line.
Latrobe Valley Bus Lines are operated by Valley Transit, which runs connecting bus services in the Latrobe Valley area between Moe and Traralgon – consisting of inter-city services that run between Moe and Traralgon to nearby towns such as Morwell, Churchill and Yallourn North – and connecting town services that run in each major center.
Latrobe Valley Airport (IATA: LTB, ICAO: YLTV) is located in the Latrobe Valley approximately 2 hours east of Melbourne, off Princes Highway, on the west side of Traralgon.
[edit] Education
The Gippsland campus of Monash University is home to 2,000 on-campus students, 5,000 off-campus students and nearly 400 staff. The campus sits in the Latrobe Valley town of Churchill, 142 km east of Melbourne on 63 hectares of landscaped grounds.
It is the only non-metropolitan campus of Monash University. The campus offers many undergraduate degrees, and attracts many students from the Latrobe Valley, East and West Gippsland. The Gippsland Medical School, offering postgraduate entry Bachelor of Medicine / Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) courses was officially opened by the Federal Minister for Health and Ageing, Nicola Roxon on 5 June 2008, providing students with a unique opportunity to learn medicine in a rural setting working with rural practitioners.
[edit] Sport
The area has a rich and intricate Australian Football history. There are currently approximately 30 players on Australian Football League team lists in the AFL from the Latrobe Valley & Gippsland.
Latrobe Valley is currently the only large regional centre in Victoria that does not have a team participating in the Victorian Football League, despite the fact that the area within an approximate 35 km radius of Moe (Drouin, Warragul, Trafalgar, Moe, Morwell, Churchill, Traralgon and other smaller towns) has a population well over 100,000, as large or larger than places such as Bendigo and Ballarat that do have teams participating in the VFL.
The Victorian Football League was formerly known as the Victorian Football Association (VFA). When that league was called the VFA – people involved in it stated that their goal was for the VFA to become the statewide league in the state of Victoria. When there is a team based in Moe in the Latrobe Valley they will have achieved their goal of that league becoming the statewide league in Victoria.
The region is represented in the Victoria State TAC Cup Under 18's competition by the Gippsland Power.
Gippsland Power played its first season in the TAC Cup cometition in 1993. The Power have won one premiership to date in 2005 – and been runner-up on two occasions in 1999 and 2010.
Over 60 players have been drafted from Gippsland Power onto Australian Football League club lists since the first player was drafted in 1993.
Gippsland Power has had three players win the TAC Cup Under 18's Morrish Medal – the award for the best & fairest player in the Tac Cup as voted by the umpires – Matthew Stolarczyk in 1999, Jarryd Blair in 2008 and Dyson Heppell in 2010.
The Gippsland League Football competition is the largest league in the region and one of the largest and highest standard football leagues in Victoria outside of Melbourne. Five of the ten teams in the Gippsland League are based in the Latrobe Valley.
The most recent premiership won in the Gippsland League (or equivalent) by a team based in the Latrobe Valley was Traralgon Maroons in 2005.
The Mid Gippsland Football League is the second largest football league in the area and comprises 10 teams – all of which are exclusively based in the Latrobe Valley.
9 of the 10 teams in the Gippsland Soccer League are based in the Latrobe Valley (the other team is based in Sale).
[edit] Racing Industry
The Moe Racing Club schedules around fourteen race meetings a year. The racecourse is in Waterloo Road within a very short walk of the Moe central business district and V/Line train station. Raceday race calling can be heard in the central business district of Moe during race meetings. The two largest race meeting in Moe are the GPG Mobil Moe Cup meeting in mid October – which is one of the largest regional race meetings outside of Melbourne on the Victorian Racing calendar – and the Melbourne Cup Day meeting on the first Tuesday in November. The Moe Racing Club is the largest capacity racecourse in Gippsland. The club also offers members and guests other facilities, including Turfside Tabaret, the Turfside Bistro and the Turfside Function Centre.
The first harness racing meeting held in Warragul was in November 1939 and the local club conducted the first country Derby in Australia three months later, with the Warragul Derby for pacers and for trotters. Warragul is the eldest club based east of Melbourne.
Drouin Picnic Racetrack is situated 95km east of Melbourne via the Princes Freeway. The Course is neslted amongst the park surrounds of the Mathew Bennett Park and the Drouin Golf Club, about 500m south of the Freeway itself. The track is approximately 1500m in circumference. Drouin's main race meeting is on Boxing Day, with the feature race being the Drouin Cup.
Glenview Park in Traralgon hosts both horse and greyhound racing. Traralgon greyhounds race at the Glenview Park Racing Complex which is owned by the Latrobe City Council. It was specifically designed for the racing of horses and greyhounds. The inaugural greyhound race was held in 1973. Typical greyhound races at Glenview are run over a distance of 298, 513, 658 and 730 meters.
There are a large number of golf courses in the Latrobe Valley area within an approximate 35 km radius of the centrally located center of Moe. They include the Moe Golf Club, nestled next to Lake Narracan, Churchill & Monash Golf Club, which is located near Monash University Campus in Churchill and Yallourn Golf Club at Newborough.
[edit] Media
[edit] Newspapers
The area is serviced by newspapers the Latrobe Valley Express and the Warragul Gazette.
The Latrobe Valley Express is delivered free of charge to residences in the Latrobe Valley region twice per week on Monday & Thursday and has a current circulation of approximately 34,128 (CAB). There is also the Moe-Narracan News and the Traralgon Journal, which is distributed free of charge once per week on Tuesday and has a circulation of approximately 11,034 (CAB).
The Warragul Gazette and The Trader are printed and distributed by Warragul Regional Newspapers Pty Ltd. The Trader is distributed free to hosueholds and farms in the west Latrobe Valley area. The Gazette has a circulation of approximately 11,515 each Tuesday, whilst The Trader has a circulation of approximately 12,492 each Thursday.
The now defunct Latrobe Valley Voice was a new paper to the region, having been established in March 2011. The Latrobe Valley Voice was delivered free of charge to over 30,000 residences in the Latrobe Valley region on Wednesdays. The paper collapsed on 7 May 2011 after its financial backers withdrew their support.
[edit] Radio
Warragul commercial radio stations Star FM and 3GG service this region along with all five ABC radio networks and several community and narrowcast stations including Gippsland FM.
TRfm and Gold1242 are commercial radio stations servicing the Latrobe Valley and East Gippsland.
[edit] Television
Commercial Melbourne based television networks such as the Seven, Nine and Ten networks are all re-broadcast in the Latrobe Valley by their regional affiliates, which are Prime7, WIN Television and Southern Cross Ten respectively. All three channels have local commercials placed on their broadcasts and WIN TV also broadcasts a local news bulletin from Monday to Friday at 6.30 pm.
New channels broadcast by the commercial networks in addition to the ones listed above are available on the digital service called Freeview (Australia) to viewers in Moe and the Gippsland \ Latrobe Valley region. These channels include One HD, Eleven, 7Two, 7mate, GEM and GO!.
Most Melbourne channels (Seven Network, Channel Nine, Channel Ten) can be received in analogue and more clearly in digital in Moe with a suitable roof-top antenna. Both national public broadcasters, Australian Broadcasting Corporation including channels ABC1, ABC2, ABC3, ABC News 24 and Special Broadcasting Service including SBS One and SBS Two, are broadcast to the Latrobe Valley from the TV tower at Mount Tassie, as well as from the Dandenong Ranges transmitters located east of Melbourne.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- Baw Baw Shire Council official webiste
- Latrobe City Council official website
- LatrobeFirst: information about services & tourism in the Latrobe Valley
- Latrobe Valley brown coal information
- Latrobe Valley Racing Club Traralgon
- Latrobe Valley technology and online community
- Moe Racing Club official website
- Mount Baw Baw Alpine Ski Resort official website
- Traralgon Greyhound Racing Club
- Warragul Greyhound Racing Club
- Warragul Harness Racing Club
