Tyers

Tyers, a rural town in central Gippsland, is 145 km south-east of Melbourne and 12 km north-east of Morwell. It is situated on undulating land immediately south of hilly forest country. The Tyers River is to its west, and the river joins the Latrobe River which flows south of Tyers.

Tyers River was named after Charles James Tyers (1806-70), Crown Lands Commissioner for Gippsland. The Tyers township is in Boola Boola parish, and the town (1893) was officially known as Boola Boola until 1952.

In 1877 a farm selection survey was carried out in Boola Boola parish. Settlers came soon afterwards. A school opened in 1879 and a post office (known from the beginning as Tyers) opened in 1882. Later that decade a hotel (1885) and a Mechanics’ Institute hall (1888) opened. The Tyers district is in moist grassy country, good for dairying and a settler family, the Galbraiths, opened a butter factory in 1893.

The ranges to the north had good stands of timber and several sawmills operated during the 1920s and 1930s. Australian Paper Manufacturers acquired one of the mills in 1950, which was additional to its Boola Boola forest camp (1947-58) which had up to 150 workers in on-site huts.

The Mechanics’ Institute hall was replaced by a community hall in 1932. The Mechanics’ library fell into decay from water damage, which was probably a pity because electric light for reading was supplied to Tyers from Yallourn in 1923. In addition to the new hall there was a Sunday School hall attached to a Methodist church.

In addition to farm occupations at Tyers, residents had access to employment at Yallourn/Morwell coal and electricity works, the Maryvale paper mill and industries further afield when La Mode factory operated a bus service from the country to Traralgon.

In the town of Tyers there are a general store, a post office, a recreation reserve, a hall and a primary school (38 pupils, 2014).

Tyers Regional Park, north-west of Tyers, has walking tracks along the scenic river gorge. East of the park there are pine plantations.

Tyers’ most celebrated resident was Jean Galbraith (1906-99), a prolific writer on horticulture and native flora.

Tyers’ census populations have been: