Morwell, Victoria

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Corner of Hazelwood and Commercial Roads Morwell

Morwell (38°14′S 146°24′E) is a large country town in the Gippsland area of eastern Victoria. It has a population of 22,801 people, of which 49.4 percent are male and 50.6 percent are female. It is in Latrobe City.

Morwell is situated 148 km east of Melbourne and is 80 metres above sea level. Morwell is situated in Victoria's energy centre, the Latrobe Valley. The word morwell is thought to have been derived from an Aboriginal word that is thought to mean woolly possum.

[edit] History

The earliest inhabitants of the Morwell district were the Gunai Indigenous Australians. Their first contact with Europeans would have been with pastoralists who came south from the Monaro region of New South Wales in the 1840s in search of pasture for their stock.

In 1841, McMillan and Strzelecki made journeys of exploration through the region which would later be named Gippsland and during the 1840s the squatting runs of Maryvale, Merton Rush and Hazelwood were taken up in the area which is now Morwell.

The 1870s were a time of railway building in Victoria. In 1873 the government approved the construction of a railway line from Melbourne to Sale and it was this decision which gave rise to the development of the township of Morwell.

The first public sale of land in the town took place in January 1879 but there were at least ten traders operating in the town by that time.

A brickworks and a pottery were established in the 1880s, a butter factory was built in 1890 and a cordial factory.

Even in the 1880s, coal was seen to be of importance to Morwell. In 1888 two coal mining companies were established—The Great Morwell Coal Mining Company and the Maryvale Proprietary Coal Mining Company. Both these companies produced steam coal and were part of the industrial growth of the town which included timber getting, food processing (butter and cordial factories), brick and pottery manufacture and the transport of goods along the main railway line. Fires in the commercial area in 1890 and 1912 caused major damage to shops. This led to the formation of the Morwell Waterworks Trust and in December 1913 a town water supply from Billy's Creek was connected.

The development of the Yallourn open cut coal mine and power station in the 1920s contributed to Morwell's development, providing employment and trade.

The 1980s and 1990s were a growth period for the township of Morwell. Schools were built to educate the children of families settling in the area.

A major Research and Development project into the conversion of brown coal into oil, (Brown Coal Liquefaction Victoria or BCLV) was established in Morwell in 1983/84. Funded by the Japanese Government at a cost of over one billion dollars this project established a 50 tonne per day pilot plant which ran until 1991. The project saw several hundred Japanese families move to the area and led to the establishment of a unique educational experiment in the form of a Japanese/Australian combined curriculum at the Commercial Road Primary School.

Thriving on the success of the power industry, Morwell developed into a town offering substantial housing and financial opportunities for its many residents. With the general growth of the Latrobe Valley, Morwell's success appeared destined to continue. However restructuring and privatisation of the State Electricity Commission in the 1990s led to massive job losses in the region.

The ascendency of Jeff Kennett to the premiership of Victoria saw the demise of the town accelerated with the cutting of services. Most State Government offices were moved away from Morwell - a predominantly Labor voting and strongly unionised town - to its neighbour, Traralgon.

Amalgamation of the local councils under a commission saw the major civic centre move to Traralgon. With the re-establishment of an elected council, the civic centre was moved back to Morwell and a new Council Building constructed in 2005 is expected to lead to a revitalisation of the city centre. As of mid-2005 the town still has more than 40% of its retail stores empty and a high unemployment rate, higher than those of Traralgon or Moe.

Morwell is the headquarters of the Central Gippsland Institute of Technical and Further Education. It contains a major regional art gallery with an excellent local collection and is noted for its extensive rose gardens.