The Town Its Own Mine Swallowed Whole: Yallourn, Victoria

Yallourn wasn't just a coal town — it was a model city. Built in the 1920s by the State Electricity Commission of Victoria, it was designed as a garden city: tree-lined streets, rose gardens, a cinema, a hospital, its own daily newspaper. Five thousand people called it home, and the brown coal beneath their feet powered most of Victoria. That coal became its death sentence. In 1969, the Commission announced that millions of tonnes of it lay directly under the town — and the town had to go. Residents fought for years, but the machines won. House by house, street by street, Yallourn was sold off, trucked away and demolished. By the early 1980s, the entire city had disappeared into the open-cut mine it was built to serve. This is the story of Yallourn, Victoria — the town that was swallowed by its own mine. 🔔 Subscribe for more stories of lost towns and forgotten cities. #Yallourn #Australia #LostTowns #History #Coal