1944 Yallourn Fires

February 1944 resulted in numerous fire. Many fires were in Gippsland and the Latrobe Valley.

A fire that started near what is now Lake Narracan burnt around the township of Yallourn, ignited the coal pit, burnt to the top of the Strzeleckis and started spotfires south of the range.

Royal Commission Map of Yallourn Mine Fire in 1944

Justice Leonard Stretton, who had undertaken the Royal Commission into the 1939 bushfires headed a Royal Commission into this fire

Lives had been lost, power supplies to much of Victoria cut and munitions operations to assist the war effort curtailed

This is how it was reported on in the Melbourne Papers

Justice Stretton’s Report is a great read

Report of the 1944 fires at Yallourn