The Latrobe Valley is an inland geographical district and urban area of the Gippsland region in the state of Victoria, Australia.

According to Les Blake, in 1841 William Adams Brodribb, an early European settler,[1] named the river in honour of Charles La Trobe, Lieutenant Governor of the Port Phillip District.

It has a temperate climate meaning mild temperatures with large amounts of rain, the occasional frost and snow on neighbouring hills.

Smaller towns are Tyers, Newborough, Yinnar, Yallourn North, Churchill (site of the local campus of Federation University) and Boolarra.

The valley provides 85% of Victoria's electricity and has a substantial engineering sector supporting the power generation, pulp and paper production and food processing industries, etc.

[5] Logging is also an important industry in the hills to the north and south, with a major paper mill located at Maryvale, near Morwell.

The Latrobe Valley is significant as the centre of Victoria's energy industry, specifically the mining and burning of brown coal to produce electricity.

The Princes Freeway runs through Latrobe Valley, bypassing most major rural cities and connecting the region to both Melbourne and East Gippsland.

Some rail services run limited express to the Latrobe Valley – stopping in the major population centres of Warragul, Moe, Morwell and Traralgon.

The campus sits in the Latrobe Valley town of Churchill, 142 kilometres (88 mi) east of Melbourne on 63 hectares (160 acres) of landscaped grounds.

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.

There are currently approximately thirty players on Australian Football League team lists from the Latrobe Valley and Gippsland.

The most recent premiership won in the Gippsland League (or equivalent) by a team based in the Latrobe Valley was Traralgon Maroons in 2005.

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.

In the past there was also the Moe-Narracan News, the Morwell Advertiser and the Traralgon Journal, which were distributed free of charge once per week on Tuesday and has a circulation of approximately 11,034 (CAB).

The area was the first in Australia to receive its own regional television station, GLV-10 Gippsland (now Southern Cross 10), when it launched on 9 December 1961.

Programs from the three main commercial television networks (Seven, Nine and Ten) are all re-broadcast into Latrobe Valley by their regional affiliates - Prime7 (AMV), WIN (VTV) and Southern Cross Austereo (GLV).

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.