In 1878 the Shire of Narracan was proclaimed, and the railway arrived from Morwell. The small settlement on the Narracan Creek was a stopover en route to the Walhalla goldfields further north. The region is represented by Gippsland Power in the TAC Cup competition.Ī small gold discovery was made in 1852. The city has locally produced Aboriginal/ Koori art and is regularly home to local Australian Football and Netball Finals in the Gippsland Football & Netball Leagues and the Mid Gippsland Football League. Lake Narracan is nearby, and Moe is home to the annual Moe Cup horse races, the Moe Jazz Festival and the recreated historic settlement Old Gippstown. Moe is a navigation point and stopover for tourists en route to Erica, the historic goldfields township of Walhalla, the Walhalla Goldfields Railway and Mount Baw Baw. The town's name is believed to derive from a Kurnai (local Indigenous) word meaning "swamp land". Moe was originally known as The Mowie, then Little Moi. It is administered by the Latrobe City Council. The population has been slowly shrinking with an average annual rate of -0.1% year-on-year for the five years to 2018. It is approximately 130 kilometres (80 miles) east of the central business district of Melbourne, 45 kilometres (30 miles) due south of the peak of Mount Baw Baw in the Great Dividing Range and features views of the Baw Baw Ranges to the north and Strzelecki Ranges to the south.Īt June 2018, Moe had an estimated urban population of 16,812 (including Newborough). Moe ( / ˈ m oʊ i/ ( listen) MOH-ee) is a town in the Latrobe Valley in the Gippsland region of Victoria, Australia.