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Churchill Victoria | |||||||||||||||
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Coordinates | 38°19′S146°25′E / 38.317°S 146.417°E | ||||||||||||||
Population | 4,568 (2016 census) [1] | ||||||||||||||
Established | 1965 | ||||||||||||||
Postcode(s) | 3842 | ||||||||||||||
Location | |||||||||||||||
LGA(s) | City of Latrobe | ||||||||||||||
State electorate(s) | Morwell | ||||||||||||||
Federal division(s) | McMillan | ||||||||||||||
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Churchill is a town in the Latrobe Valley, located in central Gippsland in the east of Victoria, Australia. The town had a population of 4,568 [1] at the 2016 census, and is part of the Latrobe City local government area. The town was named in honour of former British prime minister Sir Winston Churchill, who had died earlier in the year the town's establishment was announced.
Established as a service centre for the Hazelwood Power Station, Churchill was intended to house workers in the region as the State Electricity Commission of Victoria expanded its coal mining operations. Announcing the commencement of construction, Minister for Housing Lindsay Thompson claimed that "it was doubtful whether any Victorian town had been more carefully planned." [2] Most of the early housing was constructed by the Housing Commission of Victoria. The site was chosen for its pleasant location at the foot of the Strzelecki Ranges, overlooking Hazelwood pondage. It was relatively free from air pollution, is not above rich coalfields and is in close proximity to the larger towns and power stations in the Latrobe Valley. [3]
Construction of Churchill began in 1965. In that year the first two houses in Churchill were completed and occupied by the Arch and Ayers families who received morning paper deliveries from Yinnar General Store, and milk delivery from John Koedijk. Within a week five more families arrived and so the town began to grow street by street. [4] The town was sufficiently advanced for the Post Office to open on 11 April 1966. [5] The shopping centre in Churchill was officially opened in July 1967, the first two shops (butcher and pharmacy) having opened 19 May 1967. In that year many new traders opened for business. All the shop keepers were offered a Housing Commission house in Churchill for their use. The Churchill Newsagency opened in 1967 and was run by Ian and Winifred Jones, who had previously run the Yinnar General Store. A Tattersalls agency was established in 1975. The Churchill Newsagency business was later purchased in April 1978 by Jack and Olive Robson [4]
The town was planned by Melbourne architect Best Overend [6] with a well-defined commercial centre, expansive parklands, a mix of government and privately owned quarter-acre (1,000 m²) town blocks and light industrial estates spaced from residential areas by a belt of parkland. The transport system was to be a network of restricted-access highways and a ring road fully encircling the town. Population was anticipated to reach 6,000 by 1971, rising to around 40,000 by 2000. However, the discovery of offshore gas in Bass Strait resulted in the closure of the Lurgi gas plant to the town's north, and the SEC's development in the region slowed. This, combined with the slow development of services in the town and prohibitive residential sales conditions meant that the Churchill project would never be fully realised. Population peaked at a modest 5500 in the early 1990s before a small decline. Signs of renewed growth have appeared, with several new housing estates being released during the past decade, especially after the regional tree change population boom due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
After closing in 2006 the Churchill hotel was remodelled, and reopened in January 2011. [7]
In 2009 Churchill suffered the devastation of the Black Saturday bushfires. Lit deliberately on Glendonald Rd, these fires burnt the surrounding hills of Churchill through to Yarram and killed eleven people.
Churchill was originally to be given the name Hazelwood as per the surrounding district; however, shortly before construction began, it was announced by Lindsay Thompson that the name given was to be Churchill. Thompson claimed the town would “prove a fitting town to bear the name of a man whose leadership, courage and oratory lifted the free world from the depths of despair to the heights of victory.” [2] This decision was not universally popular, and Hazelwood residents were soon lobbying to retain the established local name. Thompson responded in the press that it would be "greatest insult possible" to Churchill’s name to revert to the old name, adding that he was "surprised that there were people who apparently would not be proud to have their town named after the man acknowledged as the 20th century’s greatest statesman." [8] A ‘group of irate Hazelwood citizens’ petitioned to restore the name Hazelwood, on the grounds that ‘the use of the name Churchill for the new town would eventually cause the whole district to lose its identity.’ [9] The Hazelwood Citizens’ Committee continued to fight to restore the original name in subsequent years. [10] Residents who pushed hard to restore the Hazelwood name were finally heard in 1989, when a vote was held. The name Churchill won narrowly.[ citation needed ]
Some of the names in Churchill have a distinctly local flavour. Estates in the town were named after various white settler families. These include Silcock, Medew, McMillan, and Glendonald.[ citation needed ] Roads have also been named after people (such as McDonald, Canterbury, Philip, and Manning), flora (Acacia, Hawthorn, Blackwood and Birch), or given Aboriginal names (Amaroo, Gundaroo).[ citation needed ]
In the 2016 Census, there were 4,568 people in Churchill. 75.9% of people were born in Australia. The next most common country of birth was England at 3.2%. 83.1% of people only spoke English at home. The most common responses for religion were No Religion 39.6% and Catholic 18.3%. [1]
Churchill has several education facilities. There are several primary schools within the town, as well as the Churchill and Precinct campuses of Kurnai College.
The Churchill "Cobras" Cricket Club play at the George Cain Oval, located at Andrews Park West.
Traralgon is a city located in the east of the Latrobe Valley in the Gippsland region of Victoria, Australia and the most populous city in the City of Latrobe and the region. The urban population of Traralgon at the 2021 census was 26,907. It is the largest and fastest growing city in the greater Latrobe Valley area, which has a population of 77,168 at the 2021 Census and is administered by the City of Latrobe.
Morwell is a town in the Latrobe Valley area of Gippsland, in South-Eastern Victoria, Australia approximately 152 km (94 mi) east of Melbourne.
Gippsland is a rural region that makes up the southeastern part of Victoria, Australia, mostly comprising the coastal plains to the rainward (southern) side of the Victorian Alps. It covers an elongated area of 41,556 km2 (16,045 sq mi) located further east of the Shire of Cardinia between Dandenong Ranges and Mornington Peninsula, and is bounded to the north by the mountain ranges and plateaus/highlands of the High Country, to the southwest by the Western Port Bay, to the south and east by the Bass Strait and the Tasman Sea, and to the east and northeast by the Black–Allan Line.
Warragul is a town in Victoria, Australia, 102 kilometres south-east of Melbourne. Warragul lies between the Strzelecki Ranges to the south and the Mount Baw Baw Plateau of the Great Dividing Range to the north. As of the 2021 census, the town had a population of 19,856 people. Warragul forms part of a larger urban area that includes nearby Drouin that had an estimated total population of 42,827 as of the 2021 census.
The Latrobe Valley is an inland geographical district and urban area of the Gippsland region in the state of Victoria, Australia. The traditional owners are the Brayakaulung of the Gunai nation. The district lies east of Melbourne and nestled between the Strzelecki Ranges to the south and the Baw Baw Ranges, part of the Great Dividing Range, to the north. Mount St Phillack is the highest peak to the north of the Latrobe Valley, due north of Moe. The highest peak to the south is Mt Tassie, south of Traralgon.
The City of Latrobe is a local government area in the Gippsland region in eastern Victoria, Australia, located in the eastern part of the state. It covers an area of 1,426 square kilometres (551 sq mi) and in June 2018 had a population of 75,211. It is primarily urban with the vast majority of its population living within the four major urban areas of Moe, Morwell, Traralgon, and Churchill, and other significant settlements in the LGA include Boolarra, Callignee, Glengarry, Jeeralang, Newborough, Toongabbie, Tyers, Yallourn North and Yinnar. It was formed in 1994 from the amalgamation of the City of Moe, City of Morwell, City of Traralgon, Shire of Traralgon, and parts of the Shire of Narracan and Shire of Rosedale. The Yallourn Works Area was added in 1996. When formed, the municipality was called the Shire of La Trobe, but on 6 April 2000, it adopted its current name.
The Gippsland Lakes are a network of coastal lakes, marshes and lagoons in East Gippsland, Victoria, Australia covering an overall area of about 354 km2 (137 sq mi) between the rural towns of Lakes Entrance, Bairnsdale and Sale. The largest of the lakes are Lake Wellington, Lake King and Lake Victoria. The lakes are collectively fed by the Avon, Thomson, Latrobe, Mitchell, Nicholson and Tambo Rivers, and drain into Bass Strait through a short canal about 2 km (1.2 mi) southwest of Lakes Entrance town centre.
The Kurnaikur-nye) people Aboriginal Australian nation of south-east Australia. They are the Traditional Custodians of most of present-day Gippsland and much of the southern slopes of the Victorian Alps. The Kurnai nation is composed of five major clans. During the 19th century, many Kurnai people resisted the incursions by early European squatters and subsequent settlers, resulting in a number of deadly confrontations, and massacres of the indigenous inhabitants. There are about 3,000 Kurnai people today, predominantly living in Gippsland. The Kurnai dialects are the traditional language of the Kurnai people, although there are very few fluent speakers now.
The Avon River is a perennial river of the West Gippsland catchment, located in the West Gippsland region, of the Australian state of Victoria. The Avon, forms an important part of the Latrobe sub-catchment, draining the south eastern slopes of the Great Dividing Range, to form the Gippsland Lakes.
Moe is a town in the Latrobe Valley in the Gippsland region of Victoria, Australia. It is approximately 130 kilometres east of the central business district of Melbourne, 45 kilometres due south of the peak of Mount Baw Baw in the Great Dividing Range and features views of the Baw Baw Ranges to the north and Strzelecki Ranges to the south.
The Hazelwood Power Station is a decommissioned brown coal-fuelled thermal power station located in the Latrobe Valley of Victoria, Australia. Built between 1964 and 1971, the 1,600-megawatt-capacity power station was made up of eight 200MW units, and supplied up to 25% of Victoria's base load electricity and more than 5% of Australia's total electricity demand. It was a 'subcritical' pulverized coal-fired boiler. The station was listed as the least carbon efficient power station in the OECD in a 2005 report by WWF Australia, making it one of the most polluting power stations in the world. At 1.56 tonnes of CO2 for each megawatt hour of electricity, it was 50% more polluting than the average black coal power station in New South Wales or Queensland. Hazelwood emitted 14% of Victoria's annual greenhouse gas emissions and 3% of Australia's greenhouse gas emissions.
The Gippsland railway line is a railway line serving the Latrobe Valley and Gippsland regions of Victoria, Australia. It runs east from the state capital Melbourne through Warragul, Moe, Morwell, Traralgon, Sale and terminating at Bairnsdale.
Newborough is a town in the Latrobe Valley in Victoria, Australia which shares a border to its west, mostly along the Narracan Creek, with the town of Moe. It can be divided into three areas, Old Newborough, East Newborough and North Newborough. The latter two areas were developed by the State Electricity Commission of Victoria in the 1950s as residential housing for workers at the nearby Yallourn coal mining, power generation and briquette making works. Newborough now has a higher than average proportion of retirees and aged residents, and it has been suggested that it owes its generally quiet character to this fact. At the 2016 census, Newborough had a population of 6,763.
Federation University Australia Gippsland Campus is an Australian university campus located in the town of Churchill 142 km east of Melbourne. Its main neighbouring towns in the region are Morwell and Traralgon. Formerly a branch of Monash University, on 1 January 2014 it became part of Federation University Australia. Study areas at the campus include Arts ; Business; Education; Information Technology; Nursing; Midwifery; Sport, Outdoor and Physical Education; Psychology; Science; Engineering and Visual Arts.
Yinnar is a rural Australian township located in the Latrobe Valley in central Gippsland, Victoria, Australia. At the 2016 census, Yinnar had a population of 907. The origin of the name "Yinnar" is believed to have been derived from the local Aboriginal term yinnar, meaning "woman".
The City of Morwell was a local government area about 150 kilometres (93 mi) east-southeast of Melbourne, the state capital of Victoria, Australia. The city covered an area of 670.81 square kilometres (259.0 sq mi), and existed from 1892 until 1994.
Hazelwood is an area of Gippsland at the foot of the Strzelecki Ranges in Victoria, Australia. In the beginning the area acted as a service centre for the Hazelwood Power Station. Following the death of Sir Winston Churchill the town centre was renamed to Churchill, however many of the surrounding areas continue to carry the name Hazelwood.
Uncle Albert Mullett (1933–2014) was a respected Aboriginal Elder in Victoria, Australia, and spokesperson for members of the Gunai/Kurnai peoples, Gippsland, Victoria. His ancestry includes Gunditjmara and Gunai/Kurnai clans. He was actively involved in Aboriginal education and the preservation of Koorie cultural heritage for many years. He was also a skilled craftsman of shields, boomerangs and artifacts.
The Latrobe Valley Field Naturalists Club is an Australian regional scientific natural history and conservation society. It is based in the Latrobe Valley in Victoria and draws members from across western, central and southern Gippsland.