Sale: Gardens, Heritage and Water Experiences

Sale invites you to explore nature, the town’s history and experiences on the water from different perspectives. The Sale Botanic Gardens, a historical walk and routes on and around the lakes each offer a different focus. When choosing a place to stay, you can consider whether gardens and landscape, culture or active days will play a greater part in your trip.

Gardens and landscape around Sale

The Sale Botanic Gardens cover five hectares. There, you’ll find a diverse collection of mature trees and living plant collections. This makes the garden a tangible nature-focused feature of your stay, alongside the town’s cultural offerings. If you’d like to complement your trip with botanical experiences, Sale is also an interesting destination from this perspective.

Sale Common is nearby. The area covers approximately 300 hectares, around 70 per cent of which is freshwater swamp. The rest consists of red gum forest and grassland. This landscape differs markedly from a garden: Sale lets you experience not only designed plant collections, but also swamp, forest and open grassland.

Cycling by the lakes

The Sale Lakes & Wetlands Cycling Trail is an easy, 14.4-kilometre family ride around the lakes. The route passes a bird hide, the wrought-iron swing bridge built in 1883, and the botanical gardens. If you’d like to plan a cycling trip as a group activity, this gives you a specific route length and several named stops. Describing the trail as an easy family ride characterises the trail; it doesn’t replace your own decision about whether the route is right for your group.

Local history, architecture and art

The Sale Historical Museum focuses on local history and life in Sale since its beginnings as Flooding Creek. The museum is housed in a colonial building originally designed as the administrative headquarters of the Borough of Sale. This lets you connect your museum visit with a look at the building’s former function, without reducing the town’s history to a single subject.

The Sale Heritage Walk offers another way to explore the town’s architectural heritage. The route is 2.5 kilometres long and takes 45 minutes. Its features include stained-glass windows, Gothic architecture and classical designs from the late 1880s. If you’d rather discover architecture on a walk than in an exhibition, this walk is a distinct part of your trip, with a specified length and duration.

The Gippsland Art Gallery houses the region’s most comprehensive art collection. The Port of Sale precinct has facilities for entertainment, arts, heritage and recreation. This means both art and cultural history are among the themes you can consider on your trip to Sale.

Cruises on the water

The Port of Sale Heritage Cruise runs from the Port of Sale to the historic Swing Bridge. The cruise lasts 1.5 to 2 hours and takes place aboard the 112-year-old EMV Rubeena. This clearly defined experience combines a boat trip with a historic destination. If you’d rather explore the lakes on the water at your own pace, you can set off from the Port of Sale and travel through the Gippsland Lakes region to its connection with the sea at Lakes Entrance.

This lets you first decide whether Sale suits the kind of trip you’re looking for, then search for suitable holiday accommodation for your stay.

Discover more destinations

Find more destinations in San Remo, Katunga, Kaniva, Lalbert, Coleraine, Eaglehawk, Mirboo North and Grovedale.

For the broader travel overview: Victoria.