Churchill began as a service centre for the Hazlewood Power Station and future replacement for Yallourn and Morwell townships. Construction began on Churchill in 1965. The town 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. Slow development of services and a slowdown of the state of Victoria's power station construction program meant that Churchill was to never realise it's potential, and population reached a modest level of 5000 by the mid 1980s, a level which has remained static ever since.