Gippsland Lakes - currents of Bass Strait would wash the sand into the dunes and regularly seal the entrances until water build up in the rivers re-opened them (the Natural Entrance at Lakes Entrance was always moving and was intermittent and dangerous for boats) hence Port Albert became the main access to Bass Strait until a permanent opening was created in 1889 at Lakes Entrance which then allowed the development of the port of Sale
1798: George Bass sights Wilsons Promontory, initially naming it “Furneaux's Land.” Matthew Flinders and George Bass circumnavigated Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania) in 1798, confirming the promontory's connection to the mainland and renaming it after Thomas Wilson, a London merchant friend of Flinders.
1801: Lieutenant James Grant, commanding HMS Lady Nelson, returned in March 1801 from Sydney to survey the Victorian coastline between Cape Otway and Wilsons Promontory, as well as Western Port
1800's: Sealers, timber cutters, and surveyors like Francis Louis Barrallier (1801) operated at Wilsons Prom intermittently
1826 - Capt William Hovell finds coal at Cape Paterson and Harmer's Haven, this coal was used by Samuel Anderson when he settled on Westernport in 1830, and small mining operations followed in 1840
1830's: settlers at Mallacoota
1835-36: stockmen and squatters took up runs in the district
“Omeo B”, originally called “Mount Pleasant,” was a vast cattle run of about 51,200 acres taken up by James McFarlane in 1835–1836, potentially the first such property in what became Victoria
McFarlane was also from the Monaro District, NSW and found Omeo by overlanding on horseback through the Australian Alps, crossing the Snowy River multiple times and scouted ahead before returning with others like George McKillop and Livingstone in 1835 to settle the Omeo Plains
“Omeo A” in 1836 taken up by John Pendergast was an early European pastoralist from the Monaro district, NSW
1840 - Samuel Anderson discovers Andersons Inlet and a “big river” at Inverloch, which was soon surveyed by Thomas Scott Townsend and then the Smythe brothers who surveyed the coast and inland from Cape Paterson to Cape Liptrap.
1840: Anderson Inlet (Inverloch) 1st settled
1840: Gippsland explorers:
1841: first settlers in Port Albert (then named Alberton) May 1841 by Gippsland Company
Port Albert became the main port and administrative centre for Gippsland, an important cargo port for Melbourne and Van Dieman's Land and thrived during the gold rush being the main port for access to the Omeo and Dargo gold fields region, but the introduction of the railway greatly adversely impacted the port's importance which would result in a decline of the town from the 1880's.
1842: 1st settler in Bairnsdale region - Frederick Jones at Lucknow
1842: William Raymond took up Stratford pastoral run
1842-43: Thomas Nutt surveys land including Wilsons Prom where Runs of 14,700 acres at Sealers Cove, 25,000 acres at Mount Singapore, 25,000 acres at Corner Inlet (including some of Yanakie Isthmus), 33,000 acres at Oberon Bay and 4,000 acres at the Darby River were surveyed while 22,000 acres at the southern end of the Promontory was reserved and excluded from grazing and selection
1)1843: pastoral run by Edmund Hobson at Traralgon
early 1840's: pastoral run in Dargo region
1840-1860: the oldest road in Gippsland: Omeo to Port Albert via Bairnsdale, Stratford, and Sale
1844 - 1st settler in Sale arrived - Archibald McIntosh who established his 'Flooding Creek' property and by the end of the year there were at least 40 land holdings in Gippsland carrying about 20,000 head of cattle and 62,000 sheep and by 1845, this had increased to 100 holdings, carrying between them 30,000 cattle and 100,000 sheep
1848: establishment of Sale following original settlement at Flooding Creek in 1844 with punt/bridge over Latrobe River
1848-49: G.D Smythe of Alberton, the contract surveyor carried out a coast survey of Wilsons Prom from Corner Inlet to Cape Wellington and in 1849 he took out an annual grazing license for 19,200 acres on Waratah Bay - a holding which in 1950, he claimed as the Cape Liptrap Run
1850: Colony of Victoria becomes official
1850: Richard Bennison occupied the 16,640 acre Yanakie Run at Wilson Prom
1851: Gold rush:
gold discovery on Livingstone Creek, Omeo in 1851 reported by geologist Reverend William Branwhite Clarke (1798–1878), which then drove the formation of a more formal township at Omeo during the 1850s, with a hotel and stores by 1856 and a post office by 1858
Port Albert became a key port for gold rush traffic 1850s via the overland route to Omeo via Sale, Bairnsdale which took four to six weeks
1852: gold discovered in Moe
1852, a workable coal seam was discovered in Wonthaggi and the Victorian Coal Company was established but the mine was soon closed due to transport difficulties
1854: lighthouse Gabo Island 1854/62
1856, Malcolm Campbell was the first person to enter the lakes system in Gippsland from the ocean with a commercial load. He entered at Lakes Entrance and sailed his goods up the the gold fields in Omeo along the Tambo River
1856, development of Bairnsdale township - post office opened 1856, township surveyed/gazetted 1860s, police station 1862, courthouse/school 1868, railway 1888
1858: establishment of Stratford township and opening of the post office
1859: lighthouse built on tip of Wilsons Prom
1860: passing of the first Land Settlement Act began a long process of settlement under altered terms of tenure and acquisition resulting in the big holdings disappearing
1861: gold discovered on Crooked River in Dargo region sparking rush with hotels/stores by 1861
1862: gold discovered Stringers Creek, Walhalla leading to population peaking ~4000 by late 1860s
1862: establishment of Moe township and opening of the post office
1863 - the Amazon was shiprecked near Harmers Haven at a location now called Wreck Beach
1864: Dargo township surveyed allotments sold 1866; school opened 1870; survived as supply/agricultural hub post-gold decline
1865, the 1st reasonable road from Melbourne to Sale was created, and Cobb and Co established a rough-and-ready 24-hour coach service linking Melbourne and Sale
1865: Wilsons Prom was thrown open for land selection
1866: Lakes Entrance, then known as Cunninghame was surveyed
1866: Traralgon established with post office opening
1869, Land Act selectors arrive in Drouin region, 1st selections in 1870 by McNeilly and Cook
1870 - Land Act of 1869 paved the way for land selection in the Inverloch region and a large part of the town was built on subdivisions taken up in 1874 and 1883.
1870's: 1st settlers in Korumburra region; Walhalla township developed;
1876: Cameron family settled in Orbost then called Newmerella
1877: railway from Melbourne to Traralgon, 1st post office in “Drouin Junction” railway station
1878: railway from Moe - Morwell
1878 - children's book author, Mary Grant Bruce born in Sale
1879: Morwell township developed pre-railway sale - railway opened in April 1879
1879: Moe township surveyed
1879: Korumburra founded
1879: Cann Station
1879: railway station built in Sale leading to development of a port in Sale to access the Gippsland Lakes
1880: post office opens in Orbost - the name Orbost derives from a location on the Isle of Skye - like much of Gippsland, many of the early arrivals were Scottish selectors
in the 1880s the rich river flats were cleared and crops such as maize, hops and hemp were experimented with, with maize (corn) quickly becoming the main crop of the district - the threshed crop was carried about 20kms down the Snowy River by riverboat to Marlo, where it was transferred to coastal freighters for the journey to markets in Melbourne - however, the trip down river was never guaranteed however due to the Marlo Estuary sand-bar which often halted shipping
1880's: the railway line spurs growth of town along it such as Warragul which became a commercial hub
1882: first settlers in Leongatha
1883: Newmerella renamed as Orbost
1886: Inverloch proclaimed a town
1887: post office opens in Leongatha
1887 - HM Prison Sale built in Sale and operated for 110yrs
1866-1889: an artificial entrance at Jemmy’s Point Lakes Entrance was debated, consulted and attempted from 1866 until its completion in 1889
1890: post office opens at Cann River (Cann Station)
1890-91: railway to Leongatha and township officially named
1891: railway to Korumburra and coal discovery boosts township
1890's: coal mines opening in Korumburra, Outrim and Jumbunna saw the beginning of Inverloch developing as a seaside holiday resort
1893: butter factory opens in Orbost
1894: post office opens in Mallacoota with discovery of gold and a gold mine 1894-97 although tourism had started in 1880s?
1895: butter factory opens in Leongatha
1898: Wilsons Promontory temporarily reserved for a National Park - 75,000 acres was formally gazetted in 1905 and expanded by 26,000 acres in 1908 to include most of the coastal strip
1900: settlement at Noorinbee (Cann River)
1900's: Foster township allotments sold
1901 - the Artisan was wrecked at Wreck Beach
1903: first ag show/dairy factory in Foster, 1st ag show in Leongatha
1905: after 3 years of draining the marshes, the Noojee township was founded - settlers had arrived in the late 1880's amid dense forests and steep slopes but progress had been slow due to poor access
1909: State Coal Mine founded a Wonthaggi
the State Coal Mine at Powlett Coalfields opened after a miners' strike in NSW starved Victoria's railway and coal industries. The coal was taken to Inverloch by bullock teams then shipped to Melbourne. Initially a temporary tent town it soon was established as Wonthaggi and a reservoir was built. The Nyora-Wonthaggi railway was extended 22km to Wonthaggi and built in just 10 weeks with the 1st steam train arriving in 1910. Much of the town was burnt down in a fire in 1911. A Queen Anne style railway station was built in 1912. In 1915, the State Coal Mine was the 1st mine in the Southern Hemisphere to be electrified, and the Wonthaggi Hotel opened. Rail cars were introduced in 1951 and the last passenger steam train ran in 1961 while the last goods steam train ran in 1965. The State Coal Mine at Wonthaggi closed in 1968 (re-opened as a tourist attraction in 1982) and the railway de-commissioned in 1977.
1910: Wonthaggi township surveyed and 1st sales
1910: railway to Walhalla
1911: railway to Wonthaggi
1912: 1st camping permits issued for Wilsons Promontory but no structured facilities
1913: water supply to Morwell
1914: last gold mine in Walhalla closes and township becomes largely abandoned by 1960's due to deforestation, high costs, and repeated bushfires but then was partly resurrected by tourism
1915: Cunninghame renamed as Lakes Entrance
1916: 1st power and hotel in Foster
1916: railway line extended from Bairnsdale to Orbost
1919: the Warragul-Noojee railway line, completed in 1919 with its iconic trestle bridges, transformed Noojee into a logging powerhouse - over 300 spot mills operated nearby, feeding a central mill and soon a post office opened in Noojee (1920) followed by a store, school and hall. Noojee would be mostly burnt down by bushfires in 1926 and again in 1939 but survived the 1983 Ash Wednesday fires via a wind change.
1920's: Yallourn coal mine boosts development of Morwell
1924: first onshore oil discovery near Lakes Entrance
1928: highway to Cann River, hotel at Cann River
1928: tourism boom with caravan parks in Lakes Entrance
1930: passenger rail services to Noojee end
1937: footbridge built at Lakes Entrance
1937: Maryvale Paper Mill opens Morwell
1937-41: 1st hospital in Foster
1947: Tidal River at Wilsons Promontory becomes a formal camp ground to overnight visitors repurposing WWII army commando training buildings at Tidal River into holiday lodges and camping areas
1950: Licola timber mill
1954: railway to Noojee closes.
1955: suggestion to explore offshore Bass Strait
1962: first marine seismic survey of the Bass Strait oil and gas fields
1965: Barracouta gas field discovered (Australia's first offshore well)
1967: Kingfish oil field found (largest in Australia)
1968: Wonthaggi coal mine closed
1968: Licola timber mill bought by a local part of the Lions Club (“Licola Wilderness Village”) which they developed and ran a school camp, in addition, they bought the nearby land which became the site of the store and caravan park which turned Licola into a base for campers and hikers.
1969: gas production starts from Longford; oil stabilization plant opens.
1970's: Bass Strait oil fields produce over half of Australia's oil production
1991: Bunurong Marine Park established to protect the flora and fauna and 100 years after the 1st dinosaur bone was discovered, annual university digs for dinosaur fossils at The Caves begin.