Sale is a city situated in the Gippsland region of Victoria, Australia and the council capital of the Shire of Wellington.

In 2021, there was a proposal by locals to change the town name from 'Sale' − due to similarity with English word, sale − to either, 'Wayput' or 'Flooding Creek',[5] but turned out to be unsuccessful.

In the 1840's, drovers heading south to Port Albert crossed Flooding Creek and were confronted with the difficult marsh country around the Thomson and Latrobe rivers.

A Post Office named Flooding Creek opened here on 30 September 1848 being renamed, somewhat belatedly, as Sale on 1 January 1854.

An SBS TV documentary, Afghanistan: The Great Game – A Personal View by Rory Stewart,[7] claims that it is actually named after his wife, Lady Florentia Sale (1790–1853), who wrote a famous journal of her experiences during the First Anglo-Afghan War which became a best seller in the 1840's and was serialised in The Times (UK) and possibly in Australia.

Shops, hotels and offices spilled over into Raymond Street and the first Anglican Church was erected on the site now occupied by St Anne's and Gippsland Grammar School.

Writing of the experience in Australia and New Zealand (1873) he spoke of the town's "innumerable hotels" and concluded from his impressions that the Aborigines had little chance of surviving as a race.

HM Prison Sale was completed in 1887 and it operated for 110 years until it was replaced by a private Fulham Correctional Centre.

[11] The Criterion Hotel closed in 2006 and its rapidly deteriorating condition caused local concern that it would be demolished.

However, the site was subsequently purchased by a Traralgon-based developer who had previous expertise in restoration of commercial buildings.

The Criterion received a complete rebuild in 2010/11 with the external heritage facade and verandah fully restored.

The construction of the Sale Canal (complete with turning circle) duly commenced in the 1880s, thereby linking the town via the Thomson River and the Gippsland Lakes to the open sea.

Other elements were the Sale Swing Bridge, completed in 1883, a high wharf, and a launching ramp which still exists in the heart of the city.

In World War II, the West Sale RAAF base was the landing site of two Japanese Mitsubishi Zeros.

Previously, Sale was significant as an office centre for the Esso corporation but these operations were relocated around 1990, leaving only the oil and gas processing facility in nearby Longford.

Sale's main shopping precincts are Gippsland Centre and adjacent Raymond St Mall.

Most other shopping style stores including clothing, music and food can be found along Raymond St, known to be the main street of Sale.

The facility is also home to a modern gym with group fitness classes for all ages, cafe, childcare, swim school and personal training.

A brand new major TAFE campus has also been completed in 2022 close to the CBD, built on the former old Sale netball courts.

[20] The routes make their way around the residential areas of Sale and some nearby small towns, linking residents to the Gippsland Shopping Centre or the Sale railway station, and are as follows : The city is located at the junction of the Princes Highway and the northeastern end of the South Gippsland Highway.

Its readership spans Wellington Shire, from north of Dargo to south of Port Albert, and to the west of Rosedale and east of Munro.

The area was the first in Australia to receive its own regional television station, GLV-10 Gippsland (now Southern Cross 10), when it launched on 9 December 1961.

Programs from the three main commercial television networks (Seven, Nine and Ten) are all re-broadcast into Sale by their regional affiliates – Seven (AMV), WIN (VTV) and Southern Cross Austereo (GLV).

Traralgon based Ace Radio commercial stations — TRFM (99.5 MHz) and Gold 1242 both cover Sale.

Prior to refurbishment in the mid-1990s Lake Guthridge suffered a blue-green algae problem that resulted in widespread fish mortality until local joggers and nearby residents complained of the associated stench causing council to act.

In recent years, a grassroots effort helped to persuade the local council to invest in restoration of the foreshore and to protect against erosion.

The Sale Regatta is run yearly on a long straight section of the canal headed towards Longford.

A fishing contest is held at Lake Guthridge every Easter and the Sale Music Festival at Gippsland Grammar School in June.

Sale also has a strong underground music scene; events are held every few months and attract scores of young people.

Every Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, the Gippsland Armed Forces Museum is open, featuring local military and significant history and artifacts.