Rosedale, Victoria

Rosedale is a pastoral and agricultural town 184 kilometres east of Melbourne via the Princes Highway. It is situated on the southern side of the LaTrobe River. Once a staging post on the Port Albert to Sale and Port Albert to Walhalla coach runs, it was the administrative centre of the Shire of Rosedale which extended to the east and included the Ninety Mile Beach. It is now part of the Wellington Shire centred in Sale. At the, Rosedale had a population of 1,077. The town is in the area of Gippsland explored separately by the Scotsman, Angus McMillan, and the Polish aristocrat, Count Paul von Strzelecki, in 1840. A memorial to McMillan is located in Rosedale, and one to Strzelecki near Traralgon to the west. McMillan named the region Gippsland after Governor Gipps.HistoryThe earliest European inhabitant in the district is thought to have been a man named Blind Joe who lived in a hut on the Latrobe River and the first sale of 'town lots' in Rosedale, on 20 May 1855, took place there. The town is named after and built upon the site of a station owned by David Parry-Okedon, who, in 1843, called his run Rosedale after his wife, Rosalie. The earliest known plan of the township is dated March 27, 1855. It comprised 14 blocks and remains the central layout of the township.For two decades, Gippsland was sparsely populated, relying on the supply of livestock to Tasmania for its prosperity. With discovery of gold at Stringer's Creek in 1863, the region was to change. Within a decade, the Long Tunnel mine at Walhalla had become one of the richest in the world, as prospectors and miners converged on the mountain. Transport hubs like Rosedale, Sale and Port Albert expanded as farmers found a ready market for their produce.