Coal Face

After a century of coal, what should Latrobe Valley's identity look like in the future? 

In this final instalment of season 2, we explore new technologies being researched right here in Gippsland, and how a multi-year long co-designed project has led to community visioning what could be after coal. 

First, we dive into hydrogen with Dr Surbhi from Federation University. We explore how to cut through the greenwashing and learn what the energy could do here in Australia, if done correctly.  

Then we shift to local futures with Associate Professor Jess Reeves. Jess takes us inside a multi-year project she led, working with communities across the Latrobe Valley to co-design what post-mining land could become. Find out what Jess and the team discovered about the future of our home, through deliberation processes with First Nations communities, young people and local residents. 

To cap off the season, we also give out 'The Coalies' Coal Face Awards for things what we said that were good. Bon apitite x 

It's our season finale and we’re going beyond coal!  

This is episode is all about looking forward to Offshore wind. More specifically, the Australian Centre for Offshore Wind Energy AKA ACOWE’s Technical symposium, which happened back in September 2025. The ACOWE Technical Symposium was the first of its kind, and was presented in collaboration with the Gippsland New Energy Conference.

Thanks you to Federation University Australia and the Victorian State Government for supporting the Coal Face podcast.

Yallourn was a much loved company town built to house power industry workers and their families. It was much loved by resident's and a showpiece for the state of Victoria. After the Second World War, many migrants arrived to help run and expand the power station, mine and some took up residency in Yallourn. Unfortunately, the industry that helped build Yallourn also ended up being the reason for its downfall.

In this episode hear from our guests David Langmore & Josef Sestokas as we take a look at some of the Latrobe Valley's migration history, displaced persons and the rise and fall of the town of Yallourn. 

Show Notes

The Hazelwood Mine Fire of 2014 left the Latrobe Valley blanketed in toxic smoke for 45 days. But the real story doesn’t end when the fire was extinguished. What came after was a reckoning: a landmark inquiry that exposed corporate negligence and health impacts. This episode asks: what did the Hazelwood Mine Fire Inquiry change, and what did it leave unresolved? We’ll explore the creation of the Hazelwood Health Study and how it tracked the ongoing effects of smoke exposure, including heart, lung and mental health outcomes and key groups like infants and children, young people, and older people as well as broader community wellbeing. We’ll also look at how the fire forced recognition of a “health deficit” in the Valley, sparking the establishment of the Latrobe Health Assembly and Latrobe Health Innovation Zone and what the recent removal of these organisations funding means moving forward. 

Ellen-Jane is currently Executive Officer of the Latrobe Health Assembly, a place of community informed health innovation situated in Victoria's Latrobe Valley. Ellen-Jane brings to the role a long history of working in the university and government sectors. These include - Principal Advisor for the establishment of the Latrobe Health Innovation Zone, Director Portfolio Services at DHHS, Academic Register at RMIT, and many other senior officer roles spanning six government departments and two Universities. Ellen-Jane also tutored in the areas of Sociology, Political Science and Law. Away from work, Ellen-Jane has a love of the Strzelecki Ranges in South Gippsland, the CWA, her old school Land Rover Defender, and Antarctic History First Editions. Ellen-Jane holds a variety of graduate and post graduate qualifications in the areas of Sociology, Political Science, and Public Administration from Monash, RMIT and Melbourne Universities.

Radical Valley? Power struggles, unions, the SEC & economic geography.

Hear from our guests Naomi Farmer, Luke Van Der Mullen & Sally Weller as we learn about economic geography discuss the SEC in its heyday, the radical history of the Latrobe Valley, power struggles. And how union actions in the Valley influenced the broader workers rights movement across Australia.  

Season two has been made possible by the support of Federation University, and the Victorian State Government (along with our blood, sweat & research tears and you, our wonderful coal face listening crew).

For episode 2 we pick up the story in the 20th century, when Gippsland’s brown coal fields were transformed into power stations, company towns and modernist dreams. From Purvis Plaza to Hazelwood’s hot-water pondage, the Valley was sold a “golden age”... but golden for whom?

Along the way, we speak with historian Erik Eklund about Gippsland’s twin booms, company towns like Churchill and the overlooked roots of environmental activism, and with industry veteran Rob Mizzi about the hidden supply chains that kept Victoria’s lights on.

It’s a journey through booming populations, brick houses, migrant workers and monumental cigars that asks what the golden age of coal really meant and what impact it had on our people and places.

We kick off Season 2 by going back, WAY back. From prehistoric swamps that became Gippsland’s coal seams, to Cloggs Cave and its 12,000-year-old stories, to the giant earthworms squelching under our feet, this episode digs into the ancient ground that shaped the Latrobe Valley. Along the way, we talk with botanist Ian Sluiter about coal’s ecological origins. Poet, environmental advocate and educator Electra Green about bugs, caring for the environment growing up in the bush, and invertebrate ecologist Dr. Beverley Van Praag about the secret lives of Gippsland’s Giant Earthworm.

It’s a journey through 4.5 billion years that sets the stage for coal’s 'golden age' and the transition still unfolding today.

Season two has been made possible by the support of Federation University, the Morwell Innovation Centre, the Victorian Goverment, our blood, sweat & tears and you our esteemed listeners.

We are back (well almost) find out what is in store for season 2 of Coal Face in this special announcement teaser. 

Coal Face covers the 2023 Gippsland New Energy Conference. Get all the juicy details about how the billions of dollars of new energy are going to impact the next generation of workers in Gippsland. We spoke to the Chair of the Australian Renewables Academy, Bernadette O'Connor, the Director of Emerging Industries at the Latrobe Valley Authority, Bodye Darvil, the founder and CEO of Green Lab Futures, Scott Douglas, the Regional Stakeholder Manager of Corio Generation, Kate Foster, Year 12 school captain and future engineer, Ellie MacGregor, one of the GNEC event organising team and Senior Advisor in New Energy Development at the Gippsland Climate Change Network, Michelle Isles. PLUS all our own hot takes!