Churchill is a town in the Latrobe Valley,
located in central Gippsland in the east of
Victoria, Australia. The town of Churchill had a
population of 4,588 at the 2006 census, and is
part of the Latrobe City local government area.
Churchill was named in honour of former
British leader Sir Winston Churchill.
Churchill was planned with a well-defined
commercial centre, expansive parklands, a mix
of government and privately owned quarter-
acre (1,000 m²) town blocks and light industrial
estates spaced from residential areas by a
belt of parkland. The transport system was to be
a network of restricted-access highways and a
ring road fully encircling the town. Population
was planned to reach 6,000 by 1971, and
eventually 40,000 by 2000. However slow
development of services and a slowdown of the
state of Victoria's power station construction
program meant that Churchill was to never
realise its potential, and population reached a
modest level of 5500 by the 1991 census, before
stabilising at around 5,000. Signs of renewed
growth are appearing, with a new housing
estate development opening in 2005, the first
for some years.