coastal city, southeastern Victoria, Australia. It lies along the Thomson River near the latter's junction with the Macalister. Sale is the major regional centre for East Gippsland, an irrigated area of intensive farming and livestock raising. Founded in 1845, the settlement was named after Sir Robert (“Fighting Bob”) Sale, a British general who fought in India. It grew as an early river port and became successively a borough (1863), town (1924), and city (1950).

Sale is connected to Melbourne (115 miles 【185 km】 west) by rail and is on the Gippsland and Prince's highways. Its industries include foundry and joinery working, plastics and other manufacturing, and a gas absorption plant fed from the gas field in Bass Strait with a pipe link to Melbourne. The city is near the Gippsland Lakes (lagoons) and the Ninety Mile Beach of the south coast, and tourism is an added source of income. It is also an educational centre and the seat of Anglican and Roman Catholic bishoprics. Pop. (2001) urban centre, 13,366.