Commissioned by the State Electricity Commission of Victoria, this four part educational miniseries documents the engineering, mining operations and electrical distribution in Latrobe Valley. This series incorporates footage from Frank Hurley's 1936 standalone film, alongside new, expanded material to follow the formation and mining of brown coal, power generation, factory processing, electrical distribution networks within Victoria and Melbourne, and the manufacturing of briquettes.
DirectorFrank Hurley
The Romance of Brown Coal
Jan 1, 1949
Illustrates how brown coal formed over millions of years in the Latrobe Valley. Shows open-cut mining methods and the mechanical conveyance of coal to the power house and briquetting plant.
Brown Coal to Kilowatts
Jan 1, 1949
Formatted as a conducted school trip to Yallourn. Children view the open-cut dredgers, boiler-houses and turbo-generators. To illustrate the principles of an electrical turbine, a classroom model is spun using steam from the spout of a boiling kettle.
The Magic of Electricity
Jan 1, 1949
Takes the viewer on an inside tour of the Yallourn Power Station, "Victoria's most important power house". This episode details how electricity is generated and distributed across Victoria and Melbourne.
Brown Coal to Briquettes
Jan 1, 1949
Shows the processing of the Yallourn and Morwell brown coal deposits. Focuses on the industrial factory manufacturing methods used to press raw mined material into commercial fuel briquettes.
