Gippsland Lakes

The Gippsland Lakes system is Australia’s biggest and most beautiful expanse of inland waterways with over 400 square kilometres of lakes, rivers, lagoons and islands to explore.

The lakes were originally shallow coastal lagoons that were part of a large bay but over thousands of years sand has built up in deposits along the coastline and the lakes are now separated from the ocean by a beautiful strip of coastal sand dunes known as the Ninety Mile Beach.

Beginning at Sale on the Thomson River, there are three main lakes: Lake King, Lake Victoria and Lake Wellington and they are all joined and fed by rivers that originate in the high country, including the Mitchell, Nicholson, Tambo and Avon rivers. The lakes include many small islands, which are reached easily by ferry or water taxi from Paynesville. The two most visited islands are Raymond Island, which is home to a large koala colony and a rich array of flora and fauna and Rotamah Island, famous for its bird life. There are also two national parks that abut the lakes, the Lakes National Park and the Gippsland Lakes Coastal Park, both of which offer great camping and walking tracks. 

A unique feature of the Gippsland Lakes is the Mitchell River silt jetties, which snake eight kilometres out into Lake King from the mouth of the mighty Mitchell River. The jetties are a geographical rarity of world renown second in size only to the immense silt jetties of the Mississippi. The best place to view the jetties is from the lookout at Eagle Point near Bairnsdale.