Sandy Point is a township in south

Gippsland Gippsland is a rural region that makes up the southeastern part of Victoria, Australia, mostly comprising the coastal plains to the rainward (southern) side of the Victorian Alps (the southernmost section of the Great Dividing Range). It cove ...

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

near

Wilsons Promontory Wilsons Promontory, is a peninsula that forms the southernmost part of the Australian mainland, located in the state of Victoria. South Point at is the southernmost tip of Wilsons Promontory and hence of mainland Australia. Located at nea ...

. At the , Sandy Point had a population of 270, growing to several thousand during the holiday period. 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.

History

The Bratowooloong people of the Gunai nation lived in the area before European settlement. The first Europeans to visit the area were three

shipwreck A shipwreck is the wreckage of a ship that is located either beached on land or sunken to the bottom of a body of water. Shipwrecking may be intentional or unintentional. Angela Croome reported in January 1999 that there were approximately ...

ed sailors in 1797. Irish convicts escaped south from Sydney and landed on Seal Island where several men were stranded and found by

George Bass George Bass (; 30 January 1771 – after 5 February 1803) was a British naval surgeon and explorer of Australia. Early years Bass was born on 30 January 1771 at Aswarby, a hamlet near Sleaford, Lincolnshire, the son of a tenant farmer, Georg ...

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 The Gippsland line (also known as the Orbost railway line) is a railway line serving the Latrobe Valley and Gippsland regions of Victoria, Australia. It runs east from the state capital Melbourne through the cities of Moe, Morwell, Traralgon, ...

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. The development of the town as a tourist location started in earnest in the 1960s but has been restricted by its natural heritage values.

Surrounding areas

The Sandy Point area has a large spit system and its shoreline, on

Waratah Bay 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. Surrounding townships Waratah Bay is approximately s ...

, 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 long, running between Walkerville at its north-western end and

at its south-eastern end. Three kilometres east of Sandy Point lies a river inlet known as

Shallow Inlet 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 ...

. This sandy, tidal inlet is a popular fishing spot and a good area for

windsurfing Windsurfing is a wind propelled water sport that is a combination of sailing and surfing. It is also referred to as "sailboarding" and "boardsailing", and emerged in the late 1960s from the aerospace and surf culture of California. Windsurfing g ...

and

kitesurfing Kiteboarding or kitesurfing is a sport that involves using wind power with a large power kite to pull a rider across a water, land, or snow surface. It combines aspects of paragliding, surfing, windsurfing, skateboarding, snowboarding, and wa ...

. Speed sailing records have been set there on several occasions and, in 2009, the yacht "Macquarie Innovation" broke the speed barrier there. Sandy Point beach

Natural habitats

The area near Sandy Point contains a diverse range of habitats including

mangrove A mangrove is a shrub or tree that grows in coastal saline or brackish water. The term is also used for tropical coastal vegetation consisting of such species. Mangroves are taxonomically diverse, as a result of convergent evolution in several ...

s, 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

dunnart Dunnart is a common name for species of the genus ''Sminthopsis'', narrow-footed marsupials the size of a European mouse. They have a largely insectivorous diet. Taxonomy The genus name ''Sminthopsis'' was published by Oldfield Thomas in 1 ...

s and

koala The koala or, inaccurately, koala bear (''Phascolarctos cinereus''), is an arboreal herbivorous marsupial native to Australia. It is the only extant representative of the family Phascolarctidae and its closest living relatives are the ...

s living in the region. Until 10,000 years ago, Sandy Point was an underwater slope leading to plains now lying underneath

Bass Strait Bass Strait () is a strait separating the island state of Tasmania from the Australian mainland (more specifically the coast of Victoria, with the exception of the land border across Boundary Islet). The strait provides the most direct wat ...

External links

Federal Department of Environment and Heritage Victorian heritage places

Visit Victoria Gippsland attractions

Shallow Inlet

Shallow Inlet Reference Material

Sandy Point Community Group

Sandy Point Surfcam

References

{{authority control Coastal towns in Victoria (Australia) Towns in Victoria (Australia) Shire of South Gippsland