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Digging People Up For Coal

History of Yallourn book released by acclaimed Gippsland author

By Emma Kae - 26th February 2002 - Back to News

Touted as being a "dramatic account of Australia's most astounding urban story", the non-fiction tale begins in a picture storybook fashion, describing a designer 1920s garden town of and a flourishing community that was home to many hard-working Gippsland families.

Despite the beginnings as a thriving, harmonious town, only forty years later, the area was marked to be destroyed in the search for coal. The book traces the long and bitter battle that was fought by the Save Yallourn Campaign – a conflict that unfortunately, was in vain.

Author Dr. Meredith Fletcher (editor of the Gippsland Heritage Journal) has been greatly praised for her latest work. Critics have stated that the book "brings to life a community that still exists vividly in memory and imagination. (It succeeds) in resurrecting Yallourn from the depths of the open cut, it both celebrates and mourns a lost community" (Melbourne University Press).

This is a book not to be missed by any literate Gippslander with an interest in history. The book launch for the region is taking place at Monash University on Thursday the 26th of February. Visit the Monash University website for more information. Digging People up for Coal is commercially available for $34.95. Click here to visit the Dymocks online bookstore and purchase your very own copy.

Source: http://gippsland.com/

Published by: support@gippslander.com

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