Sandy Point Victoria | |
---|---|
Coordinates | 38°49′S146°06′E / 38.817°S 146.100°E |
Population | 270 (2016 census) [1] |
Postcode(s) | 3959 |
Location | |
LGA(s) | South Gippsland Shire |
State electorate(s) | Gippsland South |
Federal division(s) | Monash |
Sandy Point is a township in south Gippsland, Victoria near Wilsons Promontory. At the 2016 census, Sandy Point had a population of 270, growing to several thousand during the holiday period. [1] It is surrounded by areas of significant natural heritage.
Sandy Point is one of the few coastal towns in the region to remain relatively unaffected by the housing boom along the coast. That is partly due to its distance from Melbourne (around 2 hours), and the fact that a lack of town sewerage has meant a ban on further sub-division.
The Bratowooloong people of the Gunai nation lived in the area before European settlement. The first Europeans to visit the area were three shipwrecked sailors in 1797. Irish convicts escaped south from Sydney and landed on Seal Island where several men were stranded and found by George Bass who put them ashore near Shallow Inlet to walk back to Sydney. No more was ever heard of them.
Sealers and whalers visited the area in the first half of the nineteenth century. However, it wasn't until the 1860s that the area was settled by cattle farmers. The arrival of the Gippsland railway line improved the viability of local farms and made dairy farming in the area. The Post Office opened on 2 September 1926, and was closed in 1994. [2]
The development of the town as a tourist location started in earnest in the 1960s but has been restricted by its natural heritage values.
The Sandy Point area has a large spit system and its shoreline, on Waratah Bay, is considered of high heritage value. Sandy Point's surf beach is patrolled during the summer months and is considered good for surfing. The beach on Waratah Bay is 18 kilometres (11 mi) long, running between Walkerville at its north-western end and Wilsons Promontory at its south-eastern end.
Three kilometres east of Sandy Point lies a river inlet known as Shallow Inlet. This sandy, tidal inlet is a popular fishing spot and a good area for windsurfing and kitesurfing. Speed sailing records have been set there on several occasions and, in 2009, the yacht "Macquarie Innovation" broke the 50-knot (93 km/h) speed barrier there. [3]
The area near Sandy Point contains a diverse range of habitats including mangroves, extensive stands of coastal heathland as well as remnant coastal grassy forest. It features a wide range of invertebrate species. There are large populations of white-footed dunnarts and koalas living in the region.
Until 10,000 years ago, Sandy Point was an underwater slope leading to plains now lying underneath Bass Strait.
The Wilsons Promontory National Park, commonly known as Wilsons Prom or The Prom, is a national park in the Gippsland region of Victoria, Australia, located approximately 157 kilometres (98 mi) southeast of Melbourne.
Wilsons Promontory, is a peninsula that forms the southernmost part of the Australian mainland, located in the state of Victoria.
Inverloch is a seaside town in Victoria, Australia. It is 143 kilometres (89 mi) south east of Melbourne via the South Gippsland Highway on the Bass Highway in the Bass Coast Shire of Gippsland. Known originally for the calm waters of Anderson Inlet, it is now also known for the discovery of Australia's first dinosaur bone.
The Ninety Mile Beach is a sandy stretch of beach on the south-eastern coastline of the East Gippsland region of Victoria in Australia. The beach faces Bass Strait and backs the Gippsland Lakes. The beach is just over 151 kilometres (94 mi) in length, running north-eastward from a spit near Port Albert to the man-made channel at Lakes Entrance.
The Gippsland Lakes are a network of coastal lakes, marshes and lagoons in East Gippsland, Victoria, Australia covering an overall area of about 354 km2 (137 sq mi) between the rural towns of Lakes Entrance, Bairnsdale and Sale. The largest of the lakes are Lake Wellington, Lake King and Lake Victoria. The lakes are collectively fed by the Avon, Thomson, Latrobe, Mitchell, Nicholson and Tambo Rivers, and drain into Bass Strait through a short canal about 2 km (1.2 mi) southwest of Lakes Entrance town centre.
Lakes Entrance is a seaside resort and fishing port in eastern Victoria, Australia. It is situated approximately 320 kilometres (200 mi) east of Melbourne, near a managed, artificial channel connecting the Gippsland Lakes to Bass Strait. At the 2016 census, Lakes Entrance had a population of 4,810.
Toora is a small farming town in Victoria, Australia whose main industry is dairy farming. It is located at the top of Corner Inlet opposite Wilsons Promontory National Park. In the 2016 census the population was 681.
Foster is a dairying and grazing town 174 kilometres (108 mi) south-east of Melbourne on the South Gippsland Highway in Victoria, Australia. At the 2016 census Foster had a population of 1,164. It is about 20 kilometres (12 mi) north of the Gippsland coastline which includes Shallow Inlet, Corner Inlet, Waratah Bay, Yanakie and Wilsons Promontory.
Walkerville Victoria, Australia, is a tiny village on Waratah Bay in southwest Gippsland, about 190 km southeast of Melbourne. The small town, originally known as Waratah, is separated into Walkerville North and Walkerville South. The Walkerville Promontory View Estate is situated inland 2.3 km north of Walkerville North. At the 2006 census, Walkerville had a population of 262.
The Great Southern Rail Trail is a 109-kilometre rail trail from Nyora to Welshpool in South Gippsland, Victoria, Australia. Sections of the trail are flat or gently undulating trail through lush dairy farmland, areas of remnant bush and lowland scrub. There is a big climb on the section between Loch and Leongatha. The section between Fish Creek and Foster climbs past Mount Hoddle and goes through dense forest with occasional magnificent views of Wilsons Promontory and Corner Inlet.
The Waratah Bay is located in south Gippsland, Victoria. The bay is an arc of almost 20 kilometres of flat sandy beach framed by Cape Liptrap to the west and Wilsons Promontory in the east.
Venus Bay is a wide bay and a township on that bay on the east coast of Victoria, Australia. At the 2016 census Venus Bay had a population of 944.
Cape Paterson is a cape and seaside village located near the town of Wonthaggi, 132 kilometres (82 mi) south-east of Melbourne via the South Gippsland and Bass Highways, in the Bass Coast Shire of Gippsland, Victoria, Australia. Known originally for the discovery of coal by William Hovell in 1826, it is now extremely popular for its beaches and rockpool and at the 2011 census, it had a population of 718.
Yanakie is a small, coastal township and district on the Yanakie Isthmus in South Gippsland, in the state of Victoria, south-eastern Australia.
The Corner Inlet is a 600-square-kilometre (230 sq mi) bay located 200 kilometres (120 mi) south-east of Melbourne in the South Gippsland region of Victoria, Australia. Of Victoria's large bays it is both the easternmost and the warmest. It contains intertidal mudflats, mangroves, salt marsh and seagrass meadows, sheltered from the surf of Bass Strait by a complex of 40 sandy barrier islands, the largest of which are Snake, Sunday and Saint Margaret Islands.
Anderson Inlet, sometimes incorrectly referred to as Andersons Inlet, is a shallow and dynamic estuary in South Gippsland, Victoria, Australia where the Tarwin River enters Bass Strait. It forms a 2,400-hectare (5,900-acre) almost enclosed bay next to the town of Inverloch, for which it provides a popular and protected beach. At low tide its intertidal mudflats provide important feeding habitat for migratory waders. It is also an important area for recreational fishing. It is named after Samuel Anderson pioneer explorer the first European to settle in the area.
Jack Kenneth Loney was an amateur Australian maritime historian who published over one hundred books and numerous newspaper and magazine articles. He was a schoolteacher and principal until his retirement. He became interested in maritime history after preparing several general history booklets covering the Otway region of western Victoria, Australia.
Shallow Inlet is a marine inlet, opening onto Waratah Bay on the western side of the Yanakie Isthmus in South Gippsland, Victoria, south-eastern Australia. It lies close to the small holiday communities of Sandy Point and Yanakie, as well as to Wilsons Promontory and the Wilsons Promontory National Park.
The Wilsons Promontory Marine National Park is a protected marine national park located in the South Gippsland region of Victoria, Australia. The 15,500-hectare (38,000-acre) marine park is situated off the southern tip of Wilsons Promontory and extends along the coastline from Norman Bay, near Tidal River, in the west around the southern tip of the promontory to Cape Wellington in the east. It extends offshore to the Glennie and Anser groups of offshore islands.
McLoughlins Beach is a small settlement in South Gippsland, Victoria. It has an estimated permanent population of less than 300 and a number of holiday houses.