Moe, Victoria

Moe Victoria
Streetscape in central Moe
Moe
Population:	15,582
Postcode:	3825
Coordinates:	38°10′20″S 146°16′04″E
Location:	135 km (84 mi) from Melbourne 21 km (13 mi) from Morwell
LGA:	City of Latrobe
County:	Buln Buln
State electorate:	Narracan
Federal Division:	McMillan

Moe (ⁱ/ˈmoʊ.i/ moh-ee) is a city in the Latrobe Valley and Gippsland region of Victoria, Australia. It is about 135 kilometres (80 mi) east of Melbourne and at the 2006 census Moe itself had a population of 15,582 (includes Newborough and Yallourn North), with the Latrobe Valley within a 35 to 40 km radius if Moe having a population of approximately 120,000. It is administered by the Latrobe City Council. Moe was originally known as The Mowie, then Little Moi. The town's name is believed to derive from a Kurnai (local Indigenous) word meaning 'swamp land'.

Moe is a navigation point and stopover for tourists en route to Erica, the historic goldfields township of Walhalla, the Walhalla Goldfields Railway and Mount Baw Baw. Moe is also home to the annual Moe Cup horse races, the Moe Jazz Festival in March, a recreated historic settlement Old Gippstown nearby Lake Narracan, locally produced indigenous Aboriginal/Koorie art and is regularly home to local Australian Football finals in the Gippsland League and the Mid Gippsland Football League. The region is represented by Gippsland Power in the TAC Cup competition.

History

Moe Jazz Festival 2005

George Street, Moe

A small gold discovery was made in 1852. The small settlement on the Narracan Creek was a stopover en route to the Walhalla goldfields further north. A Post Office opened on 17 March 1862.

The town was surveyed in 1879, following proclamation of the Shire of Narracan the year before and the arrival of the railway from Morwell. Moe was declared a city in 1963.

Local industry is based around the brown coal deposits in the Latrobe Valley and electricity generation. The area is also noted for its dairy industry.

Moe High School opened in 1952. The school was closed and merged into Lowanna Secondary College, with the previous Moe High School location becoming a housing estate. Jason Bek, a former pupil of Moe High School, is the current principal of Lowanna College.

Population

On the night of the 2006 census there were 15,582 residing in the Moe-Yallourn urban centre; 51.7% female and 48.3% male. At the time Moe had an indigenous (Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander) population of 1.4%, whilst 78.7% of the overall population were born in Australia. The other main countries of origin were: England (4.1%), Netherlands (1.7%), Scotland (1.5%), Malta (1.4%), and Germany (1.2%)

Education

Moe is serviced by a number of primary schools including:

• Moe (Albert Street) Primary School
• Moe (South Street) Primary School
• Moe (Elizabeth street) Primary School
• St Keiran's Primary School (Catholic)
• Barringa Special School (Day Special School)
• St Mary's Primary School (Catholic)
• Newborough Primary (Murray Road)
• Newborough East Primary

Moe is also serviced by two high schools:

• Lowanna Secondary College, a single campus year 7–12 state secondary college located in nearby Newborough, and
• Lavalla Catholic College, a multi campus Catholic secondary college with its year 7–9 Presentation Campus located in Newborough.

Tertiary education is offered through GippsTAFE (Yallourn, Warragul, Leongatha, Morwell). Monash University also has its Gippsland Campus at nearby Churchill.

Sporting facilities

Lake Narracan

Moe has a varied and wide range of sporting facilities available for use.

Vale Street sports facilities

Ted Summerton Reserve

Australian Football & Cricket

Ted Summerton Reserve in the west end of Vale Street, Moe is used for Australian Football and Cricket and is a short walk south along Fowler Street to Vale Street (approximately 900 metres) from the Moe V/line train station and CBD. The reserve is undergoing development and has recently had an upgrading of its facilities including an upgrade to the players facilities, preparation of the surrounds of the playing surface for spectator stands to be constructed, spectator terracing, new South Street entrance gate, upgraded scoreboard, and the development of a shared community facility called Moe P.L.A.C.E on the property borderline between the reserve and the adjacent South Street Primary School, far enough back from the eastern wing of the playing surface for a future spectator stand.
The Moe P.L.A.C.E. facility is accessible from both Summerton Reserve and South Street Primary School and was completed in 2011. The facility is part of the Moe Southside Community Precinct and includes a sports hall with side music room and stage at its northern end, community facilities and an Early Learning Centre at its southern end. The development is part of the Moe Southside Precinct development. Moe has an Australian Rules Football team competing in the Gippsland League, the Moe Lions, whose home ground is Summerton Reserve. The reserve is owned by Latrobe City Council and has a permanently elliptical surface.

Olympic Park

Olympic Park in Moe is located next to the outdoor pool at the east end of Vale Street and is used for soccer. It has two rectangular pitches, one north-south and one east-west. It is the home ground for Moe United Soccer Club who compete in the Gippsland Soccer League. A new community sports building is under construction at Olympic Park. The reserve is owned by Latrobe City Council.

Olympic Pool

The Olympic Pool in Moe is at the east end of Vale Street next to the Olympic Park Reserve. The Moe Outdoor Pool features 8 Lane 50m Pool, Toddler Pool, LTS Pool, Diving Pool, Kiosk & Electric BBQ, Beach Volleyball Court, Change Facilities, Ample grass & shade shelters.

Latrobe Leisure Moe Newborough

The local leisure centre consists of a 25-metre, 6-lane indoor heated pool, a unisex spa at one end of the complex and separate male & female saunas at the other, gymnasium with both electronic and state-of-the-art pin-loaded equipment (including rowers, treadmills, exercise bikes and steppers), squash court, 400 m all-weather athletics track and grass field with asphalt cycling track around the perimeter, night lighting for the athletics track and indoor sports halls featuring three full-sized indoor basketball courts that are utilised by local basketball, netball, volleyball, badminton, archery and playgroup associations. The complex also has ample parkland around it and the Newborough Football Ground is also adjacent to the complex.

Lake Narracan

Lake Narracan is located immediately to the north of Moe. Lake Narracan is increasingly being used for recreational purposes, including water-skiing, jet skiing and recreational fishing and has a small caravan park and water-ski club.

Moe Golf Club & Yallourn Golf Club

There are two golf course, the Moe Golf Club on Thompsons Road, Newborough and the Yallourn Golf Club in Monash Road, Newborough.

Horse Racing

Moe has a horse racing club, the Moe Racing Club, which schedules around fifteen race meetings a year including the Moe Cup meeting in October. The racecourse is in Waterloo Road within walking distance of the centre of Moe.

Lawn Bowls

Yallourn Bolwing Club & Moe Bowling Club

Yallourn Bowling Club is on the corner of Monash Road and Coach Road in Newborough and is host of the TRUenergy Classic Singles tournament.

Moe Bowling Club is on the corner of Saviges Road and Waterloo Road in Moe, a very short walk from the Moe Train Station & CBD.

Tennis

Moe Tennis Club & Latrobe Indoor Tennis Club

Moe Tennis Club is on Botanic Drive in the Moe Botanic Gardens a short distance from the Moe CBD. The facility features 15 outdoor synpave courts with 7 under lights for night tennis and a club house. The club is affiliated with Latrobe Valley Tennis Association Junior Competition and Loy Yang Yinnar & District Association Senior Competition.

A short distance away (over the Moe-Yallourn Rail Trail to the North of the Botanic Gardens) is the Latrobe Indoor Tennis Centre in Haigh Street, Moe featuring three indoor courts.

Mt Baw Baw

Nearby Mount Baw Baw and Mount St. Gwinear are popular destinations for skiing, with Mount Baw Baw having a small ski resort and Mount St. Gwinear used for cross country skiing.

Transport

V/Line

V/Line runs passenger rail services to Moe station as part of the Traralgon and Gippsland V/Line rail services which runs to Melbourne's major stations Southern Cross Station and Flinders Street Station. Currently services that run to the Latrobe Valley are listed as Traralgon services. Trains to Melbourne run from the Latrobe Valley/Gippsland to the Melbourne Metropolitan Pakenham line and follow that line into the Melbourne CBD. Moe is approximately 1 hour and 40 minutes from the CBD of Melbourne by train. The V/Line rail line to the Latrobe Valley (stopping at Moe station and ending at Traralgon) from the easternmost Melbourne metropolitan train stop of Pakenham has recently been upgraded by the State Government of Victoria for fast rail. The line was upgraded from wooden sleepers to concrete steel-mesh sleepers, with new blue metal for the line, upgrades to signaling and embanked for future fast rail services. The new trains that run between Melbourne and the Latrobe Valley have a maximum speed of approximately 160 km/h but are not running as fast rail services currently. In the future the express service from Melbournes CBD to the Latrobe Valley could cut the travel time to Moe from 1 hour and 40 minutes down to as little as around 1 hour and 15 minutes. Express services to the Latrobe Valley run express from the Pakenham to Drouin, then stop at Warragul, Moe, Morwell & end at Traralgon. Services that stop all stations stop at all stations in the Latrobe Valley including two smaller stops bewtween Warragul & Moe which are Yarragon & Trafalgar.

Latrobe Valley Bus Lines & Warragul Bus Lines

Local bus services, Latrobe Valley Bus Lines in Moe are operated by Valley Transit - which runs busses in the Central to Eastern part of the Latrobe Valley (the Latrobe City Council area). Latrobe Valley Bus Lines runs connecting buses to nearby towns such as Morwell, Traralgon, Churchill and Yallourn North as well as extensive town services in each major centre that is part of its operating area. There are 5 town services that run from the Moe CBD to town areas and back to the CBD including North Newborough, Old Newborough, Margaret Street, South Street and the Yallourn North service. Inter-center services from Moe through Morwell to Traralgon and back again leave Moe every hour on the hour from 6am to 6pm on weekdays with services also running on Saturdays and Sundays. The Inter-centr services will increase in frequency on the 23rd of January 2012 - with services leaving Moe to Traralgon and Traralgon to Moe every 30 minutes from approximately 6am to 6pm Monday to Friday, approximately 7am to 6pm on Saturday and approximately 8am to 6pm on Sundays.
There are also busses run by Warragul Bus Lines that run from the west end of the Latrobe Valley from Warragul (with connecting service to Drouin) to Moe and back again. There are six services daily on weekdays to Moe - two morning and four afternoon - with two services continuing to the GippsTAFE Yallourn Campus in Newborough. There are also two morning services on Saturdays to Moe. There are 5 services to Warragul on weekdays and two on Saturday mornings. For more information on bus services in the Latrobe Valley that run to, from and in Moe visit the Regional Bus Timetables page of the Viclink website and select the route you want to see the timetable for from the drop down menu.

Moe is an approximate hour and forty minute drive from the centre of Melbourne via the Princes Freeway.

Moe is approximately a twenty minute drive from Latrobe Regional Airport.

Media

Moe is serviced by the Latrobe Valley Express newspaper, which includes a weekly insert called the Moe Narracan News. The Latrobe Valley Express is delivered free to residences in the Latrobe Valley region and has a current circulation of approximately 34,128 (CAB). The Warragul & Drouin Gazette is also available for purchase.

Warragul commercial radio stations Star FM and 3GG service this region along with all five ABC radio networks and several community and narrowcast stations.

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 6.30pm.

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.

Notable people

• Jason Bright (V8 Supercars Driver)
• Ted Hopkins (VFL Player, member of Carlton's 1970 Premiership team)
• Brad Knowles (Cricketer)
• Troy Makepeace (AFL Player)
• Barry Rowlings (VFL Player, Premiership winner with Hawthorn in 1976 and Richmond in 1980)
• John Somerville (VFL Player, member of Essendon's 1962 Premiership team)
• Peter Somerville (AFL Player, member of Essendon's 1993 Premiership team)

See also

• Moe railway station

External links

• Moe Historical Society
• Mid Gippsland Family History Society
• Moe Community Portal
• Moe Civic Centre Rail Revitalisation Project
• Sports Facilities in Latrobe City Council Owned By The Council