Extract from ABC News
David Roberts stands with an old turbine unit at the Old Brown Coal Museum. (ABC Gippsland: Danielle Kutchel)
David Roberts remembers what it was like to live in the Latrobe Valley during coal's heyday.
He recalls his mother talking of vibrant towns with thriving shops, and schools educating multiple generations from the same family.
Local sports teams were rites of passage. Work was readily available at the mines and energy plants that dotted the valley.
But as Victoria's coal industry declined he said residents began shopping further away at other towns and young people went elsewhere for work.
It was a sign of decay.
The Old Brown Coal Mine Museum in Yallourn North. (ABC Gippsland: Danielle Kutchel)
Mr Roberts now helps run the Old Brown Coal Mine Museum in Yallourn North, which overlooks the Yallourn power station, and is president of the town's historical society.
The museum is a monument to the heritage of the power industry and the region's history, filled with photos of people long gone and artefacts from the area's coal mines.
It is a testament to how coal drove the development of the Latrobe Valley.
This year marks a century since coal mined at Yallourn was first used to supply Melbourne, and in Victoria's coal country there is still a nostalgia for the good old days.
A changing century of power
The energy industry was the bedrock of Latrobe Valley's economy until a restructure that began in the late 1980s, followed by privatisation in the 1990s.
A 2001 Monash University report found that about 7,200 jobs were lost between 1989 and 2001.
In 2017, the Hazelwood power station closed, resulting in 750 direct job losses, and the Yallourn plant is set to follow in 2028.
Despite the immense change there is still support across the region for continuing to use coal, and immense pride in its role as Victoria's powerhouse.
David Roberts now curates artefacts from the area's coal mines. (ABC Gippsland: Rio Davis)
Need for new industries
Mark Richards is a former Hazelwood worker who now serves as the Victorian district secretary at the Mining and Energy Union.
Mr Richards is focused on jobs and ensuring there will be enough employment for those who will lose theirs once the coal plants shut down.
He previously worked for the State Electricity Commission (SEC) and remembers it being a hiring behemoth, the organisation training hundreds of apprentices each year.
When Hazelwood closed, there was a scheme to try to transfer workers to new employment.
Mark Richards says governments have failed in creating new industries in the region. (Supplied: Mark Richards)
Mr Richards believes it did not create the jobs needed, and as a result, the social fabric of the town has unravelled.
"We're now at the stage where we can see the light at the end of the tunnel is probably a train about to hit us when Yallourn shuts," Mr Richards said.
"I've seen the town of Morwell go from being a bustling town to a ghost town [after Hazelwood shut]. The town is destroyed. I'm sick to death of everyone packing up and leaving."
He believes that with appropriate planning, the region can come back.
"We need jobs. It's plain and simple," he said.
Hazelwood power station closed with just six months notice in March 2017. (ABC News: Nicole Asher)
Mr Richards said successive governments had failed to create new industries in the Latrobe Valley.
He is hopeful the federal government's Net Zero Authority will do better, but said the minister must allow the valley to utilise the coal that was still in the ground to access new industries, like hydrogen production.
He feels coal-to-hydrogen projects offer the scale of jobs needed — long-term, skilled, essential. And making use of the resources already present in the Latrobe Valley.
"We're not done with coal. What we're done with is high-emission projects," Mr Richards said.
"These are not coal projects per se, they are low-to-zero-emission hydrogen projects utilising a resource that others in the world are very envious of."
But the Climate Council disagrees.
"Industries which involve the extraction and use of coal will only delay the abundance of job and economic opportunities as Australia cuts climate pollution," said energy expert Greg Bourne.
"Technologies that rely heavily on carbon capture and storage will never be a zero-emission solution, particularly where it's attached to highly-polluting coal and gas projects."
Mr Bourne added that future jobs for the Latrobe Valley will come from non-polluting sources, with the Gippsland region well placed to take advantage of green manufacturing, green hydrogen, and offshore wind.
Cause for optimism
The Earthworker Energy Manufacturing Cooperative is one such outfit powering ahead towards a new energy future in the Latrobe Valley.
It is a worker-run factory in Morwell that produces renewable energy technology like solar and heat pump hot water systems.
Team members at the Earthworker Energy Manufacturing Cooperative. (Supplied: Gregory Lorenzutti, Renew Magazine)
Earthworker member Dan Musil said the co-op was proud to be giving locals jobs in renewable energy.
"Now that we're operating and have been making products in the factory for a number of years, we have a huge amount of support locally. People love knowing that there's renewable energy technology being made in the valley," he said.
Earthworker was formed in response to the twin issues of climate change and the need for alternative sources of energy, and the reality of needing new, diverse industries in the Latrobe Valley.
"We're trying to get ahead of the game and make sure the new livelihoods we need are already in place," Mr Musil said.
He envisages a positive future for the Latrobe Valley through renewable energy production alongside manufacturing the technology needed to distribute it.
He believes it is time for the Latrobe Valley to diversify into new industries, redeploying the skills developed in the coal industry to guide the energy transition.
"There's a big role for the valley in the energy transition," Mr Musil said.
"We need to think about all the different strengths the valley has, recognise those, and diversify the valley's economic base because any region that is too dependent on any one sector is always going to be vulnerable to change.
"Remaining too attached to finding a use for coal actually diverts attention and resources and energy away from other, more realistic opportunities."
Yallourn, due to close in 2027, provides 22 per cent of Victoria's electricity and about 8 per cent of Australia's entire market. (ABC News: Freya Michie)
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