First discovered in the 1860s, brown coal from Morwell was used commercially in the 1890s to make briquettes by the Great Morwell Coal Mining Company.  The company, however closed after seven years due to technical difficulties and competition from imported black coal.

The Geological Survey of Victoria (now GeoScience Victoria) having finished its work in the gold fields of Victoria, now concentrated its efforts on the Latrobe Valley coal deposits.  In 1917 the Director of the Geological Survey, Hyman Herman, reopened the Great Morwell Brown Coal Mine to provide emergency fuel to Victoria during a New South Wales Miners Strike.

The work of Sir John Monash with the newly formed Electricity Commissioners (later the SECV) secured valuable technical information from the brown coal mining operators in Germany which saw the development of  Latrobe Valley brown coal for use in energy production.

The Latrobe Valley’s brown coal resources are vast and sufficient to meet energy demands well into the future.  At the current rate of annual usage there is over 800 years of brown coal mining and value added activities.

The major constraint on the further exploitation of this resource is its greenhouse gas intensity when used as a fuel source. The clean coal technologies which Monash Energy aim to take forward are seen as critical to once again freeing up this asset for use by future generations.

“As a centrepiece among methods for reducing greenhouse gases, carbon capture and storage could help secure the long-term viability and prosperity of the Latrobe Valley community and economy.”
Hon Peter Batchelor MP, Minister for Energy and Resources, 2007

In September 2007 Monash Energy presented a considered response to the
Victorian Government Issues Paper on the "Strategic Policy Framework for
Near Zero

Emissions from Latrobe Valley Brown Coal". This submission can be found here.