What is Gippsland?

Gippsland is a region in south-eastern Victoria, stretching from the outskirts of Melbourne in the west to the New South Wales border in the east and from the Bass Strait coast in the south to the Australian Alps in the north. It covers about 41,000 square kilometres and has a population of around 280,000.

The region was named in 1840 by Polish explorer Pawel Edmund Strzelecki after Charles Gipps, then Governor of New South Wales. The Gunaikurnai people are the Traditional Owners and hold native title across much of Gippsland. Major centres include the regional cities of Sale, Bairnsdale, Traralgon, Morwell, and Warragul, along with coastal towns at Lakes Entrance and Wilsons Promontory.

Gippsland is a diverse landscape. The Latrobe Valley in the centre holds vast brown-coal deposits that have powered Victoria for a century, with the Loy Yang and Yallourn power stations historically generating most of the state's electricity. As Victoria moves to renewable energy, the Latrobe Valley is the focus of major energy transition policy and offshore wind projects in Bass Strait. The Gippsland Lakes are Australia's largest navigable inland waterway. Wilsons Promontory National Park (the southernmost point of mainland Australia) protects some of the most striking coastal scenery in Victoria.

Agriculture in Gippsland focuses on dairy (the region produces about a quarter of Australia's milk), beef, vegetables, and timber. The Bass Strait oil and gas fields off the Gippsland coast supplied a major share of Australia's domestic gas demand from the late 1960s and remain in production today. Major bushfires in 2019 to 2020 burnt extensive areas of east Gippsland and prompted the navy evacuation of holiday-makers from Mallacoota.