The name Sale, commemorates an Afghan war hero, General Sir Robert Sale, who was killed in battle in 1845.

Sale is the largest city in central Gippsland. It received a substantial boost after the discovery of oil and gas in Bass Strait in1965. Esso built homes for its executives and senior engineers while the Victorian Government’s Housing Commission built houses for the everyday workers. Sale was also and early beneficiary of the Omeo gold rush in the mid 1850s, It retains a number of rather grand heritage hotels, but its railway station has been relocated to the outskirts, robbing the city of its former country town feel.

Sale is north of the junction of the Latrobe and Thomson Rivers which enters into Lake Wellington, a factor which greatly influenced Sale’s early growth. Nearer to the town there is Flooding Creek and various wetlands and morasses.

Pastoral runs were taken up around Flooding Creek in the 1840s. The most prominent run was The Heart being 30,000 acres. In the mid 1840s a blacksmith’s forge and an inn opened at Flooding Creek, and in 1848 a town settlement was surveyed, comprising the two blocks bounded by Raymond Street, MacAlister Street, York Street and McMillan Street. Town lots were sold in 1850, and the name was changed to Sale to commemorate an Afghan war hero, General Sir Robert Sale, who was killed in battle in 1845.