Sea Lake, Victoria

Sea Lake is a town in the Mallee district of north-west Victoria, Australia and is situated on the southern shores of Lake Tyrrell. The town is located on the Calder Highway, 351km north-west of Melbourne, and 70km west of Swan Hill. Sea Lake is in the heart of Australia's wheat belt, and is the main township for a number of wheat farms in the region. At the, Sea Lake had a population of 616.HistoryThe site upon which Sea Lake is situated was first visited by colonists in 1838. Sea Lake may have been given its name by an early settler, Edward Eyre, from the Port Phillip area. Purportedly, the sea-like appearance of Lake Tyrrell inspired Eyre. An alternative version of the naming of Sea Lake comes from a surveyors report of the time when planning the township (which lies to the south of Lake Tyrrell). It is purported that a surveyor mistook a mark on hand drawings "see lake" which had been used by the author of the drawings to mark a landmark.Lake Tyrrell is the largest salt lake in Victoria, covering approximately 70sqmi. Much of the time, Lake Tyrrell is dry. However, the lake is occasionally fed by Tyrrell Creek. There is a salt extraction plant located in Sea Lake, processing the lake's salt deposits.A community was established after the arrival of the railway in 1893. The post office opened on 2 October 1895.Sea Lake has a rich grain farming history and one of the first recorded stations in the area is Tyrrell Downs.