Sale, at the entrance to the Gippsland Lakes around 212 kilometres east of Melbourne, was explored by both Angus McMillan and Paul Strzelecki in about 1840. In 1844 the first white settler, Archibald McIntosh, set up his 'Flooding Creek' run. He also established a forge, store and butcher's shop on the early settlement. In 1851 the settlement was renamed Sale, after British Army officer Sir Robert Sale.

Located between the Omeo goldfields and Port Albert, Gippsland's major port at that time, Sale served as a convenient base for the fields until the railways were established in the 1870s and 1880s.

Swing Bridge, Sale (courtesy Wellington Shire Council)

In 1861 the inaugural Gippsland Times newspaper was published, the courthouse first sat in 1864 and the first Star Hotel and Criterion Hotel were erected in 1865. The Criterion is now one of Gippsland's oldest hotels while the brick and slate roofed courthouse is now part of the larger Foster Street complex.

Sale was declared a borough in 1863. Cobb & Co ran their first Melbourne-Sale road coach services in 1865. Their stables, dating back to the 1870s are still in existence.

In the 1870s the Latrobe Wharf was constructed. A 45 metre swing bridge (1883), launching ramp and high wharf were also added as plans to establish Sale as a port began in earnest in the 1880s. The swing bridge was designed by John Grainger (whose son was the Australian pianist and composer Percy Granger) and was the state's first moveable bridge. During its operation from the 1880s to the 1930s the bridge opened up to twenty times a day by pivoting on its central columns to allow steamers to pass to and from the port. The formation of the Sale Canal began in 1886 and when it was completed it joined Sale to the sea via the Thomson River and Gippsland Lakes.

Powder Magazine, Sale (courtesy Wellington Shire Council)

Sale (current population 13,800) was proclaimed a town in 1924 and a city in 1950.