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The Latrobe Valley is an inland geographical district and urban area of the Gippsland region in the state of Victoria, Australia. The traditional owners are the Brayakaulung of the Gunai language. The district lies east of Melbourne and nestled between the Strzelecki Ranges to the south and the Baw Baw Ranges, part of the Great Dividing Range, to the north. Mount St Phillack () is the highest peak to the north of the Latrobe Valley, due north of Moe. The highest peak to the south is Mt Tassie (), south of Traralgon.
The area has three major centres, from west to east, , Morwell and Traralgon, with minor centres including , , , and . The population of the Latrobe Valley is approximately 125,000.
The valley draws its name from the Latrobe River which flows eastward, through the valley. According to Les Blake, in 1841 William Adams Brodribb, an early European settler, named the river in honour of Charles La Trobe, Lieutenant Governor of the Port Phillip District. A. W. Reed also attributes Brodribb to naming the river in honour of La Trobe; yet Reed claims that the river was discovered by Angus McMillan in 1840 who named the watercourse as Glengarry River.
Temperatures on Mount Baw Baw, to the north of Moe, generally peak around cooler than the major urban areas during the day.
The primary hospital is the Latrobe Regional Hospital located on the Princes Highway in Traralgon.
Smaller towns are Tyers, Newborough, Yinnar, Yallourn North, Churchill (site of the local campus of Federation University) and Boolarra.
Despite its outside image as a regional economy dominated by mining and electricity, the region employs more hospital and aged care workers than power industry workers and has important service, health care and education sectors. Hospitals are the largest employer in the regional economy at 5% of the workforce, followed by power industry workers at 4.2%, supermarket and grocery store workers at 3%, and aged care workers at 2.9%.
Logging is also an important industry in the hills to the north and south, with a major paper mill located at Maryvale, near Morwell. In the rugged north of the region is located the historic gold-mining town of Walhalla, amid mountains forming the west of Alpine National Park and nearby Baw Baw National Park, which includes a small winter ski resort.
Latrobe City LGA has a population of approximately 75,000 with four major population centres: Moe, Morwell, Churchill and Traralgon, with smaller townships including Boolarra, Glengarry, Toongabbie, Tyers, Traralgon South, Yallourn North, and Yinnar, with the administrative headquarters located in Morwell.
V/Line runs a rail service from metropolitan Melbourne to the Latrobe Valley and also runs services that go through the Latrobe Valley to East Gippsland. Some rail services run limited express to the Latrobe Valley – stopping in the major population centres of Warragul, Moe, Morwell and Traralgon. Other services – including the Gippslander rail service – stop at all stations in the area. Services to the Latrobe Valley run between Melbourne and Traralgon, whilst Gippsland services run between Melbourne and Bairnsdale. The Latrobe Valley/Gippsland rail line is connected to the metropolitan Melbourne Pakenham line.
Latrobe Valley Bus Lines are operated by Valley Transit, which runs connecting bus services in the Latrobe Valley area between Moe and Traralgon – consisting of inter-city services that run between Moe and Traralgon to nearby towns such as Morwell, Churchill and Yallourn North – and connecting town services that run in each major centre.
Latrobe Valley Airport (IATA: LTB, ICAO: YLTV) is located in the Latrobe Valley approximately two hours east of Melbourne, off Princes Highway, on the west side of Traralgon.
The Gippsland Medical School, offering postgraduate entry Bachelor of Medicine / Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) courses was officially opened by the Federal Minister for Health and Ageing, Nicola Roxon on 5 June 2008, providing students with an opportunity to learn medicine in a rural setting working with rural practitioners. The Gippsland Medical School was subject to some local criticism in 2016 and 2017 when it was revealed that there were only 12 Gippsland-origin students among the cohort of 50 studying medicine at the regional campus. The only direct pathway to the medical degree was through a course offered at Monash University's Melbourne-based Clayton campus, whilst graduates from Federation University in Gippsland were not offered a direct pathway to the degree. Federal Member for Gippsland, Darren Chester, criticised Monash University arguing that: 'We should not be saying to our students who are completing year 12 this year that they have to move to Melbourne to access the Monash graduate medical program when we had an existing pathway in Gippsland.'
Glenview Park in Traralgon hosts both horse and greyhound racing. Traralgon greyhounds race at the Glenview Park Racing Complex which is owned by the Latrobe City Council. It was specifically designed for the racing of horses and greyhounds. The inaugural greyhound race was held in 1973. Typical greyhound races at Glenview are run over a distance of 298, 513, 658 and 730 metres.
Within the Latrobe Valley there are also large communities within various other sports associations, including; soccer, basketball, netball, dancing, gymnastics, tennis, swimming, Baseball and cricket.
Latrobe Valley is also home to The Gippslander Newspaper which covers the entire Gippsland region.
The now defunct Latrobe Valley Voice was a new paper to the region, having been established in March 2011. The Latrobe Valley Voice was delivered free of charge to over 30,000 residences in the Latrobe Valley region on Wednesdays. The paper collapsed on 7 May 2011 after its financial backers withdrew their support.
Most ABC stations are rebroadcast locally and available in the Latrobe Valley, along with 774 ABC Melbourne which is able to be received directly from Melbourne and the local ABC Gippsland station (100.7 MHz). National ABC stations Triple J (96.7 MHz) and ABC Classic FM (101.5 MHz) are also broadcast from Mount Tassie. Some Melbourne stations both on the AM band and the FM band can be heard across the region, however DAB+ is not available without a vertically polarized roof-top antenna.
Community radio stations Gippsland FM (104.7 MHz) and Life FM (103.9 MHz) are also broadcast into the Latrobe Valley.
Programs from the three main commercial television networks (Seven Network, Nine Network and Network Ten) are all re-broadcast into Latrobe Valley by their regional affiliates - Prime7 (AMV), WIN Television (VTV) and Southern Cross Austereo (GLV). All broadcast from the Latrobe Valley transmitter at Mount Tassie. All the commercial stations are based in Traralgon and have local commercials placed on their broadcasts.
Local news is available on all three commercial networks:
Both national public broadcasters, ABC (ABC TV) and SBS (SBS TV) are broadcast into the Latrobe Valley as well, via Mount Tassie, as well as from the Dandenong Ranges transmitters located east of Melbourne.
Additional digital multi-channels broadcast by all the networks in addition to the ones listed above are available on the digital service called Freeview to viewers in the Latrobe Valley region. These channels include HD simulcasts of the primary channel (available on channels 20, 30, 50, 60 and 80). As well as ABC TV Plus, ABC Me, ABC News, SBS Viceland, SBS World Movies, 10 Bold, 10 Peach, 10 Shake, 7two, 7mate, 7flix, 7Bravo, 9Gem, 9Go!, 9Life and Sky News Regional.
Television transmissions from Mount Dandenong for the Melbourne market (Seven, Nine and Ten) can also be received in digital in the Latrobe Valley with a suitable roof-top antenna with. Reception in the west Latrobe Valley, namely Moe, can receive these Melbourne transmissions clearly.
Subscription television service Foxtel (previously Austar until 2014) is available via satellite.
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