After more than 50 years as a mainstay of Victoria's power generation industry, it will take just three days for Hazelwood to shut down.
Three of the Morwell power station's generating units will stop operating on March 27, a further three on March 28, and the final two a day later.
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Unit Controller John Soles will probably be forced to retire after 18 years working at Australia's dirtiest coal-fired power plant, which officially closes at the end of March.
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Inside Hazelwood power station
Unit Controller John Soles will probably be forced to retire after 18 years working at Australia's dirtiest coal-fired power plant, which officially closes at the end of March.
Work will then start on removing industrial gases, fluids and oils, and cleaning out the boilers.
The power station's owners and operators, Engie, says the generating units are being switched off gradually for safety reasons. "An uncontrolled shutdown could increase the risk of injury to employees and damage to the plant," it says, in a pamphlet distributed to residents.
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While the shutdown of the generating units is just days away, when The Age toured the power station on Thursday it was still buzzing. On the vast turbine house floor there's a constant whirring, as seven large turbines spin at 3000rpm.
Pipes, parts, huge bits of metal and chunky steel ladders run in all directions. What looks like asbestos cement sheeting covers some of the walls, and coal dust lies on the floor and walls.
The tour includes a visit to the power station roof, about 70 metres above the ground. This provides a view deep into the mine pit, to the Loy Yang power stations in the east, Yallourn W power station in the north west, and across the Morwell township.
Much of the northern batters, the part of the mine closest to Morwell and which burnt for weeks during a 2014 mine fire, can be seen rehabilitated and covered in clay. About 18 hectares of the northern batters have been rehabilitated since the fire.
For the power station and mine workforce, divergent paths lie ahead. Some are retiring early while others will remain employed in the power industry.
Among those retiring is 58-year-old Dale Foster. He started in the industry as a 16-year-old apprentice.
"I've loved working here. It's been a really good place," he says, while standing in one of the power station's control rooms.
Asked what he plans to do in his retirement, he says: "I'll travel".
While he plans to travel, there will be others left unemployed after Hazelwood closes.
"There's going to be a lot of really well trained people looking for something to do," he says.
John Soles in the control room Hazelwood power station. Photo: Joe Armao, Fairfax Media.
His colleague, 60-year-old John Soles, has been at Hazelwood for 18 years. Asked what the future holds for him after the power station closes, he says it will "probably be forced retirement".
"Because I'm 60 years old any transition scheme that may get up I'll probably miss out on because they'll want younger operators," he said.
"It'll affect my lifestyle, because superannuation-wise I'm not that well off financially. It's going to be a big change in our disposable income, and I'm not sure how we're going to manage. My wife seems to think we'll be okay, but I know it's going to be a bit of a struggle."
At a packed community meeting in Morwell on Wednesday night Engie was blasted for not closing the power station in stages.
Don Duthie, a Morwell resident for 64 years, said the total closure of Hazelwood would smash the Latrobe Valley.
"This is going to be like a sledge-hammer," he said.
"I hope everybody here wakes up to that fact, because that's what it's going to be like, it's going to hit like a sledge-hammer," he said.
"It's going to cause massive problems throughout Latrobe Valley and Victoria," he said.