Lakes Entrance

Lakes Entrance is a seaside resort and fishing port in eastern Victoria, Australia. It is situated approximately 320km east of Melbourne, near a managed, artificial channel connecting the Gippsland Lakes to the Bass Strait. At the 2011 census, Lakes Entrance had a population of 4,569.The township was originally named Cunninghame, the Post Office of that name opening on 5 February 1870. It was renamed Lakes Entrance on 1 January 1915.DescriptionLakes Entrance, which lies almost at sea level, can be reached from Melbourne via Bairnsdale and the town of Kalimna to the north-west by a stretch of the Princes Highway, which snakes down and around a point protruding into the Gippsland Lakes known as "Jemmy's Point". Spectacular views of The Entrance and of the Lakes can be seen from various look-outs on Jemmy's Point. The Princes Highway leaves the north-east side of the town through hilly countryside towards Nowa Nowa and Orbost.Lakes Entrance is predominantly a fishing and tourism-driven town; the main beach front is a safe harbour for many major commercial fishing and recreational watersport operations. The surf beach is patrolled by the Lakes Entrance Surf Life Saving Club (SLSC) between November and March every summer, with lifeguard patrols from late December to late January. The waterfront is populated by the fishing fleet and two floating restaurants—Ferrymans Seafood Cafe and The Floating Dragon Dockside Restaurant. The main street consists of shops, caravan parks, a Safeway, a Target Country store that opened in 2007, and a McDonald's restaurant that opened in September 1997. The town's main residential areas lie farther inland.