Gippsland Lakes
Welcome to the Gippsland Region.
Nestled in the far east of Victoria, the Shire features
wonderful coastline scenery, a lakes and river system
to match anywhere in the world, rugged high country, extensive
national parks and state forests - and above all, a warm,
friendly welcome from the region’s community.
A population of around 40,000 people resides in the
East Gippsland Shire, over 11,000 of these in the major
commercial centre of Bairnsdale. A 280km drive –
or three hours – will take you from Melbourne
to Bairnsdale, the gateway to the region from the west.
Holiday accommodation on the Gippsland Lakes from b&b’s
to retreats, cottages and resorts. Waterfront accommodation
in lake, canal, bush, village or rural locations. Book
them all through our holiday accommodation booking service.
With over 400sq km of navigable lakes, big wide rivers,
High Country, The Great Alpine Road with snow skiing
at Dinner Plain & Mt Hotham only about two hours
away, and 300km of coastline including the
90 Mile Beach, a Gippsland Lakes Escapes holiday is
bound to awaken all your senses.
Wide open lakes are excellent for all year-round sailing,
boating or fishing. Tiny coves and inlets offer private
& secluded moorings, and deep rivers feed into the
lakes adding to the experience of exploring the waterways
and making each moment memorable.
You can experience the Lakes lifestyle, waterfront accommodation
with jetties and room to relax.
Gippsland is one of the few unique and diverse regions
in Australia. It comprises of snow fields, wilderness,
rainforests, beaches, industrialised areas, farm land
and much much more.
With Australia's number one highway running through
the centre of Gippsland, access to the country has never
been easier. From a central location day trips can lead
to an abundance of different events and activities that
can be tried, or spend some time to bask in the glories
of what the area has to offer.
Explore the Gippsland Lakes and soak up the sun on
the beautiful Ninety Mile Beach. Visit the largest concentration
of Open Cut Mining & Power Generation activity in
Australia. Or Journey to Phillip Island and catch a
glimpse of the unique penguin parade.
The following pages provide you with information on
different locations within the Gippsland Region. There
are so many exciting things to do and sights to see,
that we have divided the region into different interesting
localities and themes that you may wish to visit.
Gippsland Lakes
The Gippsland Lakes are a group of coastal lagoons which
were formed when the ocean's sand deposits created lengthy
sandspits, low-lying sand islands and dunes which eventually
formed a barrier (Ninety Mile Beach) separating Bass
Strait from the calmer waters they enclosed. The rivers
which flow into the area deposited silt and clay which
divided the inland water into a series of lakes and
swamps. In the 19th century graziers took up land in
the area, destroying much natural bushland. By that
time there was no reliable point of access to the ocean.
Thus an artificial entrance had been created by 1889
to allow permanent navigable entry. This new mouth both
lowered and stabilised water levels in the lakes which
are fed by a number of river systems - the Latrobe and
the Avon (which flow into Lake Wellington), and the
Mitchell, Nicholson and Tambo (which flow into Lake
King).
Taken together they constitute the largest navigable
inland waterway in Australia. The major bodies of water
- Wellington, Victoria and King - cover 320 km of shoreline
and encompass 340 square kilometres. They are the centrepiece
of a distinctive and environmentally significant regional
landscape of wetlands and flat coastal plains with its
own unique landforms, vegetation and fauna.
The Gippsland Lakes possess features of international,
national and state significance. The Mitchell River
delta, for example, is an eroded digitate delta which
is considered a site of international geological significance.
It extends southwards from the area around Bairnsdale
along the western shore of Lake King to Eagle Point
Bluff. From this point it takes the form of a series
of long, narrow, winding jetties of silted sediment
which extend eastwards out into Lake King for 8 km (see
entry on Paynesville).
Also of geomorphological interest are Cunninghame Arm
(south-east of Lakes Entrance) which is a relict of
a narrow channel that connected the Lakes to the ocean
before the creation of the artificial entrance in 1889;
the unique ecology and geomorphology of Lake Reeve with
its extensive saltmarsh areas; the Tambo River delta
which extends 2.5 km south-west into Lake King (although
it is rapidly eroding); the Latrobe delta, protruding
over 2 km into Lake Wellington, which is formed by silt
trapped in reedswamp; McLennans Isthmus (a long, broad
sandy promontory that separates Lake Victoria and Lake
Wellington) and McLennans Strait (a deep narrow residual
channel that connects these two lakes).
Owing to the permanence of the main lakes and the reasonably
regular flooding of the adjacent wetlands, the ecosystem
is an important habitat for over 40 000 ducks, swans,
coots and other waterbirds, particularly in periods
of drought. Lakes Wellington, Victoria and King are
permanent deep saline wetlands supporting populations
of migratory seabirds, including the little and fairy
terns. Lake Reeve is an extensive intermittent saline
wetland of international zoological significance which
provides a highly significant habitat for up to 12 000
migratory wading birds, making it one of the five most
important areas for waders in Victoria. Other noted
bird populations exist at MacLeod Morass, Sale Common,
Clydebank Morass, Dowd Morass, Jones Bay and Lake Bunga.
The latter is a relatively small coastal wetland that
is fresh to brackish, supporting waterfowl, little tern,
hooded plover and the white-bellied sea-eagle. Other
good birdwatching sites to the north are Blond Bay State
Game Reserve, located behind Lake Victoria, and Colquhoun
Forest. Vegetation around the lakes is varied, including
swamp paperbark, reed and salt-marsh vegetation such
as glasswort, shore rush, sawsedge and salt grass. |
