VICTORIA'S
GREATEST DRIVING TOURS AND HERITAGE TOWNS
Historic...SALE
A sturdy steel-truss bridge over the Latrobe River, five kilometres south of Sale, offers the merest glimpse to its raison d’etre: early this century it swung open twenty times a day giving right of way to floating traffic; today the river trade has dried up and the watercourse is a scant trickle. The bridge, maintained in working order, is entrusted to Sale’s heritage and Gippsland Lakes history - and unlikely to impede highway traffic again.
The first European to explore eastern Victoria, Angus McMillan set out in May 1839 to find good pasture for his employer, squatter Lachlan Macalister who occupied drought-affected property at Monaro, New South Wales.
The intrepid Scotsman beat a path south-west, naming the Gippsland Lakes and Avon and Macalister rivers, and further, beyond the site of present-day Sale. Settlement followed - increased occupation of the region was recognised as important, following the wreck of coastal steamer Clonmel at lonely Port Albert in 1841.
A blacksmith and dairy was the first shop in a new township, called Flooding Creek by Archibald McIntosh. For years, social life revolved around a rough bush hostelry, The Woolpack Inn. A formal town was surveyed in 1848, with land sales following in 1850 - using the new name Sale in honour of British general and empire hero Robert Henry Sale. This change caused ire amongst townsfolk who preferred simply, “the Creek.”
Sale’s location on the oldest road in Gippsland - Port Albert Road - was fortuitous: water transport could navigate rivers and lakes to within a few kilometres of town and in the 1860s, Sale served goldfields such as Walhalla and Donnelly’s Creek, with thousand of diggers entering Victoria through busy Port Albert.
About three decades later Sale was the largest town in Gippsland. British-colonial architecture typical of the 19th Century signalled the town’s prosperity. Most of these buildings - the Court House circa 1863, Council chambers, Criterion Hotel, Bon Accord homestead, Gippsland Ladies College and HM Prison Sale - can be seen on heritage tour of Sale.
In 1885 the Victorian government financed the construction of a canal, bringing shipping to wharves on the town’s edge. Following the canal’s opening, and that of the swing bridge across the Latrobe and Thomson Rivers, Sale became a hub for shipping on the Gippsland Lakes, including regular steamer services to Melbourne and Lakes Entrance. The Melbourne-Sale road was completed in 1865; the first train arrived from Melbourne fourteen years later.
In 1850 the land which now forms Lake Guthridge, on the southern edge of Sale, was labelled “low ground liable to be flooded.” Early settlers took advantage of this natural depression as the drainage outlet for waste, although the open drains were a grave health concern; the first mayor of Sale Neremiah Guthridge had a landscaping vision for the town which included building a lake out of the lagoon. The Mayor’s vision remained unfulfilled at the time of his death in 1878, by the 1960s Sale finally had a sewerage system - and a picturesque, unsullied lake with landscaped gardens.
Sale’s growth continued through the years of World War II with the RAAF training base, and then later the discovery of Bass Strait oil and gas in the 1960s. The city’s central shopping mall and clock tower, landscaped parks and elegant heritage buildings lend an air of refinement that Flooding Creek could never celebrate.
GETTING THERE: Sale is located 215km east of Melbourne on the Princes Highway, two and a half hours drive from the city, or the longer scenic route via South Gippsland Hwy. Daily rail and coach service from Melbourne.
THINGS TO DO:
Sale festival in October
museum in Foster Street
picnic at Lake Guthridge
Cullinen park, site of Sale’s port. Park and picnic areas.
Regional art gallery, Raymond street
Swing bridge, 5km south of Sale
visit historic Khojak cottage
counter meal at Criterion Hotel
Bird watching at Dowd Morass
Cobb & Co coach station, clocktower, shopping mall.
see my images at www.australianplaces.net
