Moe

The population of Moe, 135 km east of Melbourne on the Princes Highway, has hovered around the 15,000 mark since 1961. While most larger rural towns in Victoria have seen modest growth, none have had completely static population growth over such a long period. Primarily the product of brown coal deposits, Moe grew rapidly in the 1950s as did nearby Yallourn, which completely disappeared in the 1980s when the model township was resumed as a coal mine. The Victorian Housing Commission built 1500 homes in Moe for electricity and railway workers.