Wonthaggi State Mine
An industrial town, it commercial activities being centred around coal mining, pastroral and agricultural industries.
Location: 130 km south east of Melbourne on the Bass Highway.
Origin of name: of Aboriginal origin, meaning to drag or to pull along, possibly referring to the action of the miners as they brought the coal out of the mines.
Brief history: the brown coal deposits of Gippsland were first discovered in 1824 by Hamilton Hume and William Hilton Hovell at nearby Cape Paterson. Wonthaggi sprang to life in 1909 when the Victorian Government, which had been using coal from Newcastle, NSW, averted the effects of a miner's strike by quickly developing the state's own coal mines at Wonthaggi. It began as a tent town, the temporary accommodation for the thousands of miners being converted to more permanent dwellings as time and money allowed. A railway to remove the coal was quickly put through in 1909. The State Coal Mine was finally worked out in 1981 and the landscaped site is now run as a museum.
Natural features: Heath Mound; Cape Paterson; Dalys Hill; Honeysuckle Hill; Eagles Nest; Bunurong Marine and Coastal Park; Bunurong Marine National Park; State Coal Mine
Heritage features: Taberner's Hotel