Sale

History

Two famous Gippsland explorers, Paul Strzelecki and Angus McMillan, passed through the immediate area around 1840. The first white settler was Archibald McIntosh who arrived in 1844 and established his 'Flooding Creek' property on the flood plain country which was duly inundated soon after his arrival. In the 1840's, drovers heading south to Port Albert crossed Flooding Creek and were confronted with the difficult marsh country around the Thomson and Latrobe rivers. A punt operated across the Latrobe River until a toll bridge was erected. A Post Office named Flooding Creek opened here on 30 September 1848 being renamed, somewhat belatedly, as Sale on 1 January 1854. The town greatly benefitted from the 1851 gold rush at Omeo as it was situated on the Port Albert to Omeo route and was an important base for the goldfields, until the arrival of the Gippsland railway line. It was also an important service centre for East Gippsland and the Monaro Plains of New South Wales. A building boom took place c. 1855–65. In 1863 the population of Sale reached 1800 and it became a borough. The courthouse opened the following year. Shops, hotels and offices spilled over into Raymond Street and the first Anglican Church was erected on the site now occupied by St Anne's and Gippsland Grammar School. The Gippsland Times newspaper was established in 1861 while the first Star Hotel and the Criterion Hotel were built in 1865. In late December 1874, a visitor to the township recorded a description of Sale “which has all the appearances of a flourishing township”. He observed that “the streets are wide and shops plentiful, but fruit is scarce, a few stale cherries being all I could obtain from the principal shop in the place”. St Paul's Cathedral is the cathedral church of the…

Geography

Sale is located in the Gippsland region of Victoria, around east of Melbourne. It is around inland from the coast, and is located on the edge of a large wetland system upstream of the junction of Thomson River with the Latrobe River. Flooding Creek flows around the western side of the town, before becoming the Sale Canal, a excavated channel completed in 1890 that provides a navigable waterway from the Port of Sale to the lower reaches of the Thomson River, the Gippsland Lakes and the open sea. There is a history of significant floods affecting Sale, including in 1978, 1990 and 2007.

Most-observed species

• Australian Magpie

  Gymnorhina tibicen (Latham, 1802) · Aves
  2,455
• Magpie-lark

  Grallina cyanoleuca (Latham, 1802) · Aves
  1,795
• Gray Butcherbird

  Cracticus torquatus (Latham, 1802) · Aves
  1,684
• Rainbow Lorikeet

  Trichoglossus haematodus (Linnaeus, 1771) · Aves
  1,650
• Noisy Miner

  Manorina melanocephala (Latham, 1801) · Aves
  1,576
• Pacific Black Duck

  Anas superciliosa J.F.Gmelin, 1789 · Aves
  1,503
• Superb Fairywren

  Malurus cyaneus (Ellis, 1782) · Aves
  1,444
• Sulphur-crested Cockatoo

  Cacatua galerita (Latham, 1790) · Aves
  1,373

Most recent

• M 3.3 — 2026-05-09
  4 km ESE of Mirboo North, Australia
• M 3.9 — 2024-08-06
  34 km SSW of Mount Buller, Australia
• M 4.4 — 2023-06-29
  34 km SSW of Mount Buller, Australia
• M 5.9 — 2021-09-21
  39 km S of Mount Buller, Australia
• M 4.6 — 2012-07-20
  8 km S of Trafalgar, Australia
• M 5.2 — 2012-06-19
  11 km NNE of Mirboo North, Australia