Foster, Victoria

Foster is a dairying and grazing town 174km south-east of Melbourne on the South Gippsland Highway in Victoria, Australia. It is about 20km north of the Gippsland coastline which includes Shallow Inlet, Corner Inlet, Waratah Bay, Yanakie and Wilsons Promontory. At the 2006 census, Foster had a population of 2175.HistoryOriginally called Stockyard Creek, after the stream which still flows through the centre of the town, Foster was initially just a resting place for drovers travelling from Port Albert to Western Port. This changed with the discovery of gold in the 1880s, leading to a (modest) gold rush. The post office opened on 20 February 1871 as Stockyard Creek and was renamed Foster in 1879 when the township was established. In 1870 a gold rush along Stockyard Creek resulted in the township of that name and in late 1884 following comments by the Police Magistrate from Sale (Mr William H Foster) that he couldn’t hold court in a creek the town suddenly became ‘Foster’. Previously a stockyard for drovers had been established along the creek but several miles from the ultimate township. The story of Foster is in a publication available at the Foster & District Historical Society Inc. The railway was extended to Foster in 1892. When the gold ran out, Foster became a service centre of the burgeoning South Gippsland dairy industry. Today it is a thriving town that links Wilsons Promontory with the rest of Victoria.